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The relationship of personality-based learning style preferences and learning among online graduate students

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Abstract

THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY was to examine the relationship of personality-based learning styles and learning among graduate students enrolled in an online doctoral program that utilized the BlackboardSM e-leaming system. Two measures of learning—course grades and perceived learning—were used. According to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, the majority of students in the sample (N = 64) were extraverts, intuitives, feelers and judgers. This profile differed from that of the general population on two personality dimensions: sensing-intuition and judging-perceiving. The general population tends to be sensors rather than intuitives and to be equally distributed between judgers and perceivers. No significant differences in learning were found based on learning styles. The implication for practice is that an online course can achieve equity in learning for all personality-based learning styles provided the course is designed to include elements that appeal to students with different styles. However, what is not known are the roles of motivation to learn and volition for students to persist despite any incongruence between individual learning style and the course as presented.

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Rovai, A.P., Grooms, L.D. The relationship of personality-based learning style preferences and learning among online graduate students. J. Comput. High. Educ. 16, 30–47 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02960281

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