USING ADAPTIVE HYPERMEDIA TO MATCH WEB PRESENTATION TO LEARNING STYLES
Michael M. Danchak
Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

the way to meet individual learning styles is to design cyclically and to be sure that each lesson has something that will address each learning style. this will not only meet the primary learning style of each student, but will also expose students to other styles as well.

The Kolb Learning Cycle includes activities from all four quadrants. Concrete Experience, to Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualization, and finally Active Experimentation.

many definitions of learning style. Curry [10] and Riding and Cheema [11], says learning style is the act of ?adopting a habitual and distinct mode of acquiring knowledge.?

need to be sure the instructor's teaching style accomodates multiple learning styles.

different learning styles for f2f:
whole personality approach, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). based on Jung. Keirsey Temperament Sorter is similiar.

Long [14], popularized by Chuck Dziuban [15].two reactive behavior dimensions with extremes labeled aggressive/passive and dependent/independent.

Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model uses five different categories: environmental, emotional, sociological, physiological, and psychological.

Attitudes and affective dimensions - negative-positive pairs in the Grasha-Reichmann Learning Style Scales (GRSLSS) are competitive-collaborative, avoidant-participant, and dependent-independent.

information processing category - largest, best-known. is about acquiring knowledge. Kolb Learning Style Inventory [3] and the Felder-Silverman Index of Learning Styles [20].

The Kolb Learning Style Inventory - best known of this type. based on Kurt Lewin?s Experiential Learning Theory.

2 dimensions = grasping of knowledge is concrete or theoretical, or someplace in between. transform of information into knowledge either through intention or extension. In other words, they need to think about it or they need to try it out.

results in 4 quadrants: diverging, assimilating, converging, and accommodating.
A diverging learner grasps information from concrete experience and transforms it into knowledge through reflection.
A converging learner is more comfortable with grasping theoretical constructs and then transforms those constructs into knowledge through experimentation.

how to accomodate learning styles in online learning?
starts with learner completing some kind of assessment questionnaire.

Kolb?s model is experiential; style changes according to personality, educational
specialization, career choice, current job role, and current task/problem, as previously mentioned.

variant developed by McCarthy [5] has a strong emphasis on traversing all octants?offering something for everyone, at least initially.
eight instructional events that should occur in sequence:
? Connect: Create a concrete experience.
? Attend: Reflect on the experience and analyze what happened.
? Imaging: Picture the concepts, as students understand them.
? Inform: Define theories and concepts.
? Practice: Apply the defined concepts and givens, as is.
? Extend: Experiment with the concepts and add to them.
? Refine: Evaluate the extensions and modify as necessary.
? Perform: Apply the learning to the learners? world and share with others.

an instructional design that matches the learning style of the student provides the highest degree of retention as well as preference, followed by the modifiable 4MAT Style.

notes for Sloan-C Research Presentation Series: 2004
Elements of Quality Online Education: Into the Mainstream

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF E-LEARNING: WHY, WHAT, AND HOW?
Zheng Yan University at Albany, SUNY

paper addresses the following questions:
1. What are important characteristics of the psychology of E-learning as a field?
2. How can psychological insights and evidence really bring significant benefits to the E-learning community?

complex psychological phenomenon cuz involves various types of information, ways of presenting the information, and ways to learn. The space for the learning is different, as is the timing and speed of it. may not be sufficient to rely on existing learning theories.

psychology of e-learning = Emergent and interdisciplinary.

ways that psychology can help e-learning are many:
A. Cognitive Psychological Studies of E-learning
cognitive load theory and dual-coding theory - current thinking is the importance to present visual and verbal information together to maximize cognitive capacity, and present verbal info via auditory, and not text, as they avoid overload by using different channels.

B. Social Psychological Studies of E-learning
important to motivate students by improving their attitudes toward E-learning.with increased internet use, attitudes can also change to be realistic

C. Developmental Psychological Studies of E-learning
internet lonliness - impt to study longitudinally as technoloy changes, i.e. IM to allow less isolation and more connection.

notes for Sloan-C Research Presentation Series: 2004
Elements of Quality Online Education: Into the Mainstream

LEARNING ONLINE: A REVIEW OF CURRENT RESEARCH ON ISSUES OF INTERFACE,TEACHING PRESENCE AND LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS, by Karen Swan

goal shouldn't be to compare online learning to f2f and to "make it as good as", but rather to get clear about the uniqueness that online learning brings, and focus on those qualities.

unique aspects: "personalization [14], support for reflective inquiry [16], interactivity [17, 18], and support for collaboration"

research also being conducted into areas of interaction among the different facts of online learning. focus on the following three: interface issues; teaching presence, and learner characteristics.

INTERFACE ISSUES:
what occurs between the learner and the technology that is used in order for the learner to gain access to the online learning material/info.
these issues can impact the relationship that a student has with the instructor, fellow students, and the course content.

examples: 1. design of threaded discussions critical to the type of discussions happen, and whether or not learners bother to go back to the beginning threads to read/respond if they only see the most recent thread on the screen, or only those that are marked as unread.
2. another study found that when using animation, it is best to use a conversational narrative simultaneously as an explanation. don't use text to explain.
3. students learn better with a hierarchical hyperconcept map (HHCM) interface as compared with a simple hierarchical navigation system and a linear course presentation (?)

TEACHING PRESENCE:
various definitions, but involves three categories, course design and organization, facilitation of discourse, and direct instruction. these categories can be further broken down as follows:

design and organization category
setting curriculum, designing methods, establishing time parameters, utilizing the
medium effectively, and establishing netiquette

six indicators for facilitating discourse
identifying areas of agreement and disagreement, seeking to reach consensus and understanding, encouraging, acknowledging, and reinforcing student contributions, setting the climate for learning, drawing in participants and prompting discussion, and assessing the efficacy of the process. individualized corrective feedback and support for problem solving is essential.

and seven indicators for direct instruction
presenting content and questions, focusing the discussion on specific issues,
summarizing discussion, confirming understanding, diagnosing misperceptions, injecting knowledge from diverse sources, and responding to technical concerns

teaching presence can also be met by other students in the course acting in this role.

strong relationship between teaching presence and perceived learning and satisfaction

"restrained presence" or the ability of the instructor to refrain from responding to every post and to stop being the central figure in a course is important for community to develop. need a balance of presence and restraint.

to facilitate a learning community:
"structure peer interaction around authentic tasks, apply questioning strategies, role assignment, interdependent assessment, and require student reflection on the discussion itself."

LEARNER CHARACTERISTICS:
different dimensions, dependent/independent and aggressive/passive. aggressive learners are active. dependent learners need a lot of approval, independent want to control own learning. therefore success in online courses is related to students' need (or not) of instructor approval.

visual learners are more successful online than aural and/or kinesthetic learners, and that students with high motivation, greater self-regulatory skills, greater self-efficacy concerning online learning and better computer skills are more likely to perform well in online courses than students without these characteristics.

Online students were more likely to prefer reflective observation and abstract conceptualization, while face-to face learners were more likely to prefer active experimentation.

individual motivation can be an important factor in online learning, but that task specific states of motivation affect online learning.

learner characteristics are issues of gender, ethnicity, culture and language, in particular, whether specific classes of people are disadvantaged by online environments, and if they are, how such disadvantages might be ameliorated.