E-learning and learning styles: students' reactions to web-based Language and Style at Blackpool and The Fylde College

Abstract

The issue of learning styles and how they affect students' attitudes to pursuing online courses is a key issue for the development of web-based teaching. The focus of this article is how learning styles seem to have affected students' attitudes to undertaking the web-based Language and Style course at Blackpool and The Fylde College in 2004–5. The course was delivered in a blended format, incorporating both web-based and traditional teaching. The students' learning styles were assessed both at the onset and the end of the course. In this article I discuss students' reactions to the course and how these might be linked to the learning styles they exhibited at the time of the assessments. As a result of the investigation reported here, I suggest that an initial assessment of learning styles can be useful in predicting the kinds of web-based activities likely to prove valuable to the individual student. Potentially, this has consequences for the development of web-based and other learning materials in other subject areas.