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Multiple Learning Styles in Web-based Courses
Adapted from a posted interview with WebCT from September, 2000.

Multiple Learning Styles in Web-based Courses An Interview with Laura Summers Fact: The Internet enables teachers and learners alike to do things they never dreamed of before in education. Focus: To fully engage students in your online courses, it is necessary to take into account, and provide for, inherent learning style differences. If your online learners are audio (or visual, or kinesthetic) learners, how can you address their learning style in your web-based course? Laura Summers, revels in such questions. Whether designing her own courses, or those for others to teach, Summers develops creative ways of engaging students in their online classes. "Optimal learning experience for engaging learners requires Learner Interest, Content Creativity, Interactive Strategies (how to make learners share their personal interests), and Connection," says Summers. "The presence of concrete content is of the utmost importance even when interactive strategies and multi-media options provide for a variety of learning styles. The goal in creating interactive courses is to be playful, yet also academic, and concrete content insures this." The bottom line, according to Summers, is presenting alternative means for students to access information; it is a helpful tenet for professors to keep in mind, so that their content can reach students in as many ways as possible. Summer notes that "the advantage that web-based learning has over computer-based learning is the sense of community and interactivity that the web can provide." In what ways does Summers, whose background is in Instructional Design, capitalize on the interactivity that the web fosters? How does she modify online courses to accommodate students’ diverse learning styles? How do face to face strategies translate in the online environment? "Visual Learners like a lot of graphics to help them process text-based information. These can be in the form of simple graphics (pictures) which show rather than tell (such as examples of facial expressions or gestures in a Communications course). They can also include more complex images such as animated gifs or rollovers. "When you get to images with movement, such as drag and drops, you start to cross over into the kinesthetic learners’ learning style. Including such functions has combined benefit for both visual and kinesthetic learners. Summers points out that the graphics you use must relate to the content: "they’re not just pretty pictures! They have to be on the subject. Not just filler. When you add graphics, you increase student recall by up to 50%. "Kinesthetic Learners like to click the mouse, move things around. Flash Technology with lots of drag and drop, functions work well for kinesthetic learners - it’s how the physical translates to the online; movement isn’t just physical as we used to think: jumping and moving around the room," says Summers. "It helps some learners to write things down as part of the kinesthetic and visual aspects. If a notepad is offered in the course, or even if the instructor prompts the learner to write down their thoughts or responses, it helps them retain information. This is a non-technical approach that is still useful in an online course. "Auditory Learners like to brainstorm, talk with people; there’s more to adapting online curriculum for auditory learners than inserting sound files or video clips into a web-based course. I always tell people that when they design their courses, they need to translate the aural aspect of their face to face course into the communicative aspect of their online course, the things that correspond to the need of auditory learners to be with people. For instance, chat rooms and bulletin boards work well for auditory learners. Discussions can take place over listservs, bulletin boards, in chat rooms... Also, role plays, situational exercises, and case studies ... all of which call upon learners to interact with one another or with the real life application of what they are learning ... tend to work best for auditory learners." The next important step, according to Summers, is creating rich content to match course tools. For this, themes are very important; she uses them throughout her courses - with all of her examples relating back to the established theme. This allows for creativity, while insuring some consistency and predictability. Summers is the Academic Coordinator for Independent Learning and is completing her dissertation for a PhD in Educational Technology with an emphasis on instructional design and distance education. She can be reached via email at Laura.Summers@Colorado.edu.