May 3, 2002

Nebraska Researchers Measure the Extent of 'Link Rot' in Distance Education

Anyone who has surfed the Web knows the frustration caused by hyperlinks to Web pages that have moved or ceased to exist. Two researchers at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln have measured the impact of "link rot" on online education -- and it's not pretty.

As of April 15, 12 percent of the 515 hyperlinks contained in online materials for three graduate-level biochemistry courses at the university were not working, the researchers found.

"The progressive disappearance