Learning Styles and Students' Perceptions of Satisfaction in Community Collage Web-based Learning Environments

Abstract

Understanding web-based course delivery technologies in a world that demands opportunities for continuous learning, flexibility, convenience, and accessibility is increasingly important to higher education. As a result, community colleges must evaluate and assess the effectiveness of web-based course offerings in order to identify how technology impacts learning. This study focused on the overarching question: 'What are the associations between learning styles and students' perceptions of satisfaction among community college students enrolled in web-based learning environments?' To address this question, the researcher used the analysis of association methodology to explore the associations between learning styles and students' perceptions of satisfaction in four community college web-based learning environments. While there is limited empirical research available to determine the appropriateness of measuring student learning styles, the review of literature and the results of this study support that there are differences in the learning styles among community college web-based learners.

The review of literature suggested that web-based learning environments should accommodate the various student learning styles in order to increase the performance and satisfaction levels of students enrolled in web-based courses. Furthermore, the literature posited that when there is a mismatch between the web-based environment and the learning style of the student, the student will become inattentive, discouraged, and discontent with the course. However, the results of this study showed that there were limited associations between learning style preferences and students' perceptions of satisfaction in community college web-based courses.

The findings from this study only apply to the web-based learning environments and the students enrolled in one or more web-based courses at the four community colleges. Due to lack of empirical evidence, additional research is needed for students' learning styles, web-based course delivery methods, and web-based teaching styles if community colleges are to maximize the effectiveness of web-based learning.