Linda D. Grooms

The Relationship of Personality-Based Learning Style Preferences and Learning among Online Graduate Students

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.

Constructivism as the Driver of 21st Century Online Distance Education

The past two decades have ushered in a very pronounced gravitation toward a constructivist approach to teaching and learning in all realms of society and most particularly in the online distance education environment. Augmenting communication in and among those in the academic, business, and military communities, the exponential advancement of science and technology has availed vast amounts of information to virtually millions of people around the globe. In conjunction with this knowledge explosion has been a growing concern for the democratization of the learning process, with constructivism driving much of the educational agenda. This article examines the resurgence of this approach to teaching and learning, its convergence with rapidly changing technological advances, and how it forecasts future trends in online pedagogy.