Mary Sorensen, Associate Dean
Milwaukee Area Technical College
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

In the fast paced world of Online Learning, style matters!! Learning style theorists have suggested for many years that different students learn best in different ways. Everyone has their favorite way to learn! They are often visual, auditory, tactile-kinesthetic, or, perhaps a combination of all three. Further, perhaps, a different style characterizes the online student. Does comprehension play a role in learning styles and in the design and delivery of web pages? How can online students become "engaged learners"? Harnessing the vast resources of the World Wide Web and designing effective online learning environments is definitely a Challenge, but knowledge of learning styles can help greatly in that process.

In many Technical and Community Colleges, online instructors are exploring and studying the unique capabilities of the web and connecting these to specific types of learners. As online instructors deliver anytime, anyplace, anywhere, instruction that appeals to a variety of learning styles becomes even more critical. Many instructors believe that considering the diverse ways in which adult students can gain meaningful, integrated knowledge and develop their own most authentic potentials is imperative if in fact "learning for all," is to be accomplished. Many instructors and administrators also believe that appealing to learning style preferences increases learning efficiency and retention, a major goal at all institutions of higher learning today. It is also well known that anything which makes a student's learning uncomfortable will affect their ability to comprehend at a high level. Building a comfortable environment for learners, many times difficult at best, will increase their concentration and comprehension levels. Learning Style researchers advocate designing face-to-face instruction as well as online instruction to appeal to the learners’ primary learning styles and then helping these learners to slowly converge to other styles as well.

The quest to understand human learning has, in the past forty years, undergone dramatic change. Once a matter for philosophical arguments among educators, the workings of the mind and brain are now being made clear to all because of powerful research tools. From that research, a science of learning is rapidly emerging. The implications of this science for educational practice are fundamental and far reaching. The research further has important implications for how our society educates, for the design of curricula, alternative delivery of instruction, and the learning environments, both face-to-face and online. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss how the insights gained from this recent learning style and brain research can be incorporated into the varied online classrooms, and to examine online technologies and aspects of instructional design as a function of their effect on the learner considered as biological entities. We know that there are many, many issues which impact learning; however, our focus will remain on the issues for which learning research gives guidance.

Biologists have a somewhat down-to-earth understanding of the learning process and speak of it in terms of biological processes. Learning Styles to them are comprised of many multidimensional characteristics. As Henry Plotkin said "When we come to know something, we have performed an act that is as biological as when we digest something." What might be called the biological basis of learning? Are Learning Styles biological? I will take it as a given that all instruction, whether by lecture, writing, or other technology, has as its purpose that someone learns something. And how much learning goes on is in part at least a function of the design and delivery of that instruction. In my opinion, learning is essentially a private event achieved by the individual learner, and learning is often difficult to understand as it must involve the brain and is, therefore, a biological process. Learning is a basic, adaptive function of humans. More than any other species, humans are designed to be flexible learners and active participants in acquiring and integrating knowledge.

Most of us have had the embarrassing experience of getting to the bottom of a page only to discover that while our eyes were reading, our consciousness was elsewhere. We used no metacognitive strategies, nor were we aware or "thinking about our thinking." We can recall some of what we were thinking about, but nothing of what we were reading. Within the context of this thought looms an interesting research question, "how are the new generation of online readers coping with the reading medium? " Do online learners save web content (bookmark) and build an online portfolio, so to speak, to peruse at their convenience? Do they use various software applications to cut and paste, highlight and manipulate information to suit their learning preferences? Do they maximize/minimize/resize their windows according to how they wish to read and work? Do they print everything to read at home? Reading comprehension is extremely important on the web as it is with the printed page. Humans read 28% slower on a computer screen than printed text. This means, in my opinion, that online course designers should write 50% less than normal and there should be no more that 20 words per sentence, no more that eight lines per paragraph, and one paragraph per page. Ideas considered especially significant should be bolded or their color changed to attract both the eye and the brain. Writing in online learning environments must be consistent. When lengthy passages of text are presented paragraph by paragraph in sequential web pages, it is very hard to follow the context, and it significantly affect the overall comprehension. (Suggestions, offer online students the option of downloadable file copies of lengthy papers). Although reading from a computer for long periods of time can become quite tiring, like any other exercise, one’s endurance increases with practice.

While online lessons and web pages must be designed to aid in higher comprehension, they must also appeal to multiple learning preferences. This session will discuss the profile of the online learner and what this means to the online designer of the course as well as the online instructor, and how the profile of the online learner and the characteristics of the "successful" online learner must be an integral part of the online course design. Teaching Style will also be discussed. To say that teachers approach their classrooms differently is no great insight. However, to recognize that this approach profoundly affects the design of a web-based course is crucial to developing effective instructional materials. An in depth understanding of teaching styles and learning styles can help faculty enhance their teaching. A web site allows the online instructor to bring together a collection of passive and interactive media to help students learn specific material. Rather than just using popular media tools, however, online instructors should begin by analyzing their teaching style as well as the style they believe will work most successfully with their students and selecting not only appropriate instructional methods but also the appropriate web tools necessary to develop these methods.

The implications for further research in this area are great. Although many technical college's research represents an initial effort to further learning for all, it has fostered many questions regarding:

how learning for all will be possible,

earning styles of ethnic groups(MATC has 45% minority students),

and what will bridge the gap between the reality of where online learning is at present and where we hope to go with it.

1. How do we integrate technology (modify curriculum) to enhance delivery to all learning styles?

2. How do we develop better means of assessing the impact of networking, on-line communication, and other new media on learning styles?

3. What is the Profile of a successful online learner? . How do we define the "Internet Style of Learning"?

4. How do we ensure that our adult instructional programs provide for active participation of learners, build on their prior knowledge, and produce "engaged learners."

5. How have online courses changed teaching and learning?

If we are committed to transforming our institutions of learning, with use of the implications of the learning style and brain research discussed above, I believe that these "Transformed Institutions" will move from the:

"Just in Case Education" of the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s and the

"Just in Time Education" of the 80’s and 90’s to the

"Just for You Education" of the 21^st Century.

85% of all present day five year olds will enter the workforce where the positions have not yet been designed and the technologies used have not been created.

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