Using learning styles data to inform e-learning design: A study comparing undergraduates, postgraduates and e-educators

Title
Using learning styles data to inform e-learning design: A study comparing undergraduates, postgraduates and e-educators
Publication Date
2011
Author(s)
Willems, Julie
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE)
Place of publication
Australia
UNE publication id
une:9727
Abstract
What are the differences in learning styles between students and educators who teach and/or design their e-learning environments? Are there variations in the learning styles of students at different levels of study? How may we use this learning styles data to inform the design in e-learning environments? This paper details mixed-methods research with three cohorts teaching and learning in e-learning environments in higher education: novice undergraduate e-learners, graduate e-learners, and educators teaching in, or designing for, e-learning environments (Willems, 2010). Quantitative findings from the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) (Felder & Silverman, 1988; Felder & Soloman, 1991, 1994) reflect an alignment of the results between both the graduate e-learner and e-educator cohorts across all four domains of the ILS, suggesting homogeneity of results between these two cohorts. By contrast, there was a statistically significant difference between the results of the graduate and educator cohorts with those of the undergraduate e-learners on two domains: sensing-intuitive (p=0.015) and the global-sequential (p=0.007), suggesting divergent learning style preferences. Qualitative data was also gathered to gain insights on participants' responses to their learning style results.
Link
Citation
Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 27(6), p. 863-880
ISSN
1449-5554
1449-3098
Start page
863
End page
880

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