A Pilot Analysis of the Role of Learning Styles in Online Learning Environments : The Case of an American Pacific Island University

Students generally learn by reading, hearing, and experiencing. Which of the learning styles are likely to be most compatible with online learning? Keeping this question in mind, the author conducted a study using a two-step procedure. Students in an educational psychology course offered during summer 2010 took a learning style inventory first and then completed a questionnaire about online learning. Students in this sample exhibited the homogeneity of learning styles common among today's college students, and yet, also demonstrated in common the characteristics for successful online learning or distance education. The results from this study are one indication of the influence of learning-style references in today's online learning environments, but only a beginning