The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of navigation tools and computer confidence within a hypermedia environment. Twelve course sections containing 354 undergraduate college students were blocked by ability and randomly assigned to an embedded hyperlink group, a content list group, or a concept map group. Results indicated that students in the content list group scored significantly higher than those in the embedded hyperlink group on the achievement posttest and had more positive attitudes toward the program. Navigation patterns indicated that students in the content list group and the map group visited more distinct pages than those in the embedded hyperlink group. Furthermore, high computer confidence students scored better on the posttest than low computer confidence students. Implications for designing hypermedia instruction are provided. (Contains 4 tables.)