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Web2Work's Final Project: Learning Styles Research

Introduction
Web Articles
VARK Online Course Examples
Team Members Summaries
Sample of Web2Work in Action (Archived Chat Session)
Comments
Bibliography

Introduction

As we venture into the 21st century, many educators - in response to overwhelming demands by students - are embracing and implementing new vehicles to deliver education online. While this is a major shift within the pedagogy itself - i.e. teachers will be expected to possess the fundamental technology skills required to develop and deliver online courses - many traditional methods of higher learning can still be applied to their online brethrens. One of these methods is the use of developing courseware by addressing Learning Styles - different approaches to learning - to support a student's online experience. Although there are several Learning Styles which can be explored, the Web2Work team has narrowed its research to Myers-Briggs and the VARK modal.

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Web Articles

The Web2Work team has chosen 2 web articles which discuss how Myers-Briggs can assess Learning Styles. If you visit the web articles, please click your browser's BACK button to return to this page.

  1. http://www.capt.org/Using_Type/education_learningcenters1.cfm
    The first web article is from the Center for Applications Psychology Type, http://www.capt.org (CAPT). CAPT, which utilizes the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®), was founded in 1975 by Isabel Briggs Myers and Dr. Mary McCaulley. I found the website extremely resourceful and must have for all educators. Nevertheless, for our research we will discuss the article Using Learning Centers to enhance Teaching and Learning for use within an online environment.

    This article is based on the works of Gordon Lawrence -the four "quadrants" (ES, IS, EN, IN) - and his book called People Types and Tiger Stripes: A Practical Guide to Learning Styles and Carolyn Zeisset, a teacher from Nebraska, and her adaptation of Lawrence's quadrants into her learning centers model which are designed to accommodate learning styles based on the students first two letters in their personality type. In essence, this article explains in detail how to address learning styles by implementing learning centers with the aid of different activities to complement the four Myers-Briggs learning styles. In essence, the Web2Work team has determined that developing online courses with individual or group assignments (like case study activities) that cater to these learning centers will foster positive learning experiences by addressing individual learning styles even within a virtual classroom.

  2. http://www.gsu.edu/~dschjb/wwwmbti.html
    This article was written by Harvey J. Brightmon from the Business School of Georgia State University. With his article, Brightmon discusses "the four dimensions underlying the Myers-Briggs Type indicator (MBTI), and several teaching approaches that will appeal to different MBTI profiles". I found this article to be particularly interesting not only because it provides examples and defines the various learning styles but more so that it utilizes data and statistics from the Center for Applications Psychology Type (CAPT) to support their findings. As the Web2Work team has discovered, these learning styles transcend traditional classrooms and can be applied in not the only the development of the online content but how the educator approaches the class and his/her students. Armed with this information, educators can avoid poor performances on assignments and conflict with students during individual and teaming assignments which can only ensure the quality and successful delivery of the online courseware experience.

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VARK Online Course Examples

The acronym VARK stands for Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic sensory modalities that are used for learning. You can find more information about VARK from the Active Learning Site: http://www.active-learning-site.com/vark.htm.

Each of the online course examples listed below have been identified by the Web2Work team as having a strong appeal to a specific learning style, but does not mean that other learning styles would not do well in the course. Our comments regarding each course site are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) and can be read by the free Adobe Acrobat reader. If you do not have the free Acrobat reader, you may download it by visiting http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

Visual Learning Style - This preference includes the depiction of information in charts, graphs, flow charts, and all the symbolic arrows, circles, hierarchies and other devices that instructors use to represent what could have been presented in words.

Aural Learning Style - This perceptual mode describes a preference for information that is "spoken or heard." Students with this modality report that they learn best from lectures, tutorials, and talking to other students.

Read/Write Learning Style - This preference is for information displayed as words. Not surprisingly, many academics have a strong preference for this modality.

Kinesthetic Learning Style - This modality refers to the perceptual preference related to the use of experience and practice (simulated or real).

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Team Members Summaries

Tracey Andre'

Sandra Butler

Ed Eaton

Shirley Hanes

Yin Roner

Comments

Thanks to this class, Web2Work was able to run its web pages through Bobby, VisCheck, Doctor HTML, A-Prompt, and Delorie for Lynx simulation and browser backward compatibility.

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last updated: 06/06/02

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