Relationship between learning styles and effectiveness of online learning systems

Abstract

Online learning has become a popular medium to disseminate knowledge for both institutions of learning and for companies. The economic benefits to deliver knowledge and training online are well documented; however, there are still issues as to its effectiveness. One way that online learning may be more effective is by taking into account a student's learning style. Our research seeks to understand if online learning tools account for learning styles, will users find them useful and easier to use thus resulting in a successful online learning environment? We propose an extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to include learning styles as an external variable. Our results show significance for six of the seven hypotheses. Educators and corporate training departments can use these findings to design a better online learning environment for their students and workforce.

Factors Affecting Students' Perspectives on the Usefulness of Learning Online

“…Learning styles and perceived ease of use Three components of LS, except Tac in this study, had no significant impact on PE. This finding aligns with a study by Al-Azawei and Lundqvist [33], whereas is not supported by studies [31] [32]. Although the participants of the present study confirmed their positive belief in their ability to study online, they did not find it easy to perform well on this teaching and learning mode.…”

“…Learning styles and perceived ease of use A study conducted by Gu et al [31] employing Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to examine the effects of students' learning styles on their Perceived Ease of Use when studying online shows that students find it easy to use the online learning tool. In a similar vein, findings from a recent empirical study by Lu, Lin, and Chen [32] surveying 322 university students resonate with this result.…”

Models of Acceptance and Use of Technology Research Trends: Literature Review and Exploratory Bibliometric Study

“…TAM has been widely used by many researchers because it is considered a valid, robust and user-friendly model [26]; [27]. The TAM model has been used to study the acceptance of various types of technology, such as e-learning [28]; [29]; [23], social media [30], [31], [32], [33] telemedicine [34], software maintenance tools [24], buyer-seller technology [35], mobile applications [36], ERPs [37], virtual worlds [38] and even in higher education [39]; [40].…”

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic: results of a Delphi survey

“…Stemming from the above contrast, several scholars have investigated the benefits and counter-values of delivering online, rather than on-campus, education. For instance, Kanuka et al (2007) found that students are usually inclined to show higher levels of cognitive performance when they are involved in well-structured and interactive circumstances; a few years later, Gu et al (2012) proposed that the students' learning outcome is positively enhanced when software programmers have a clear idea of the students' learning style and, consequently, they are able to design the overall online learning systems with the appropriate features in order to meet the students' needs.…”