Knowing the learning styles of your students makes you be a better teacher. It helps to know how to deliver the information you are teaching to different types of students.
Hi Rhonda, Thanks for your post to the forum. As a fellow online instructor, I know what you mean about the difficulty of "reading" students. I always have my online students take an online learning style assessment. Here's one that I have used:
http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html
Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
I was frustrated when I first started because I did not comprehend all the learning styles myself. Teaching online made it difficult to assess students also. But slowly I had students call or email me and ask me if there were additional places they could read or a video they could watch to gain further knowledge. I began to understand that they just learned in different ways and was not satisfied with their level of knowledge yet through our traditional online chats and the materials they had received or used thus far. I was excited that they reached out for further help. So I try to keep an eye out especially on the chats to see if someone is have trouble with comprehension or seems frustrated. I try to find other information in different formats that helps them. Being able to assist my student learn the material in a way that it will stick with them makes me a better instructor because I am helping them to be successful.
This is a way to help students retain and understand information better and easier. This knowledge can help an instructor tailor his lessons to the individual students needs.
Hi Michael, Thanks for your post to the forum. I am really glad that you are finding this class useful! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
Hi Tricia, Thanks for your post to the forum. That is great teaching practice! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
The instructional benefits of knowing the learning styles of my students is that it will help me analyze how to deliver the course material that needs to be delivered more effectively.
Just finishing up a term right now as I take this online course, I am reminded of the physical or body language responses that I received from some of my students. Some where really into the lectures through powerpoint slides, and as I am taking this online course, I realize that these students were a mixture of auditory and visual students. I also noticed at least two students in my class who were either bored or trying not to sleep in these lectures. One of these students would always leave early and my thought was that she needs to be entertained -- which is true in a way, because through taking this online course, I've now realized that she was probably more of a kinesetic/tactile learner that needs hands-on learning in order to receive the new information that I was teaching.
This knowledge is definately useful for me as an instructor and will help me plan course material of future classes that I will teach. I will try to get a simple version of a learning assessment to give to my future students during the first day of class so that it can help me better organize and communicate the class material effectively in the future.
I enjoy giving learning style quizes. Sometimes when they realize how they learn best is not what they thought, put a smilre on my face to give them a new way of learning. I try to include ALL stlyes of learning in my classroom. I am forever changing my lesson plans based on the new group I have at the time. Not all learn the same and it's nice to change things up a bit.
Hi Vidal, Thanks for your post to the forum. It is difficult to get shy students to participate but by getting to know our students we can create questions that can get them involved. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
Hi Connie, Wow - what a diverse classroom!! Thanks for sharing a great example of how to manage such diversity! Great work! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
Hi Issy,Thanks for your post to the forum. It is surprising how much diversity in learning styles that we see in most classes! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
Good day,
As it is true every student has her/his own abilities and different style for studying, the class has to be averaged. In my case, I do power point presentations and establish a dialogue with students so that all of them participate encouraging
shy students
Best Regards
This information is so very important for the instructor and the students. I have found that giving my students a brief learning style assessment on the first day of class helps me and the student. We also have an ice breaker exercise to allow the student to get to know their classmates and this helps with their nervousness on day one and they become more relaxed and open to learning. They share phone numbers with each other and find out that they sometimes have a lot in common. Sometimes another student can explain something they've learned with another student in a different way and the other student can process it better. We have students ranging in age from 18 to 70, from all walks of life, enviroments, cultures and ethnic backgrounds. Sometimes it become difficult to manage so when I know their learning styles it helps me to plan my lecture, written assignments, presentations and labs. Yes it is more work for me but when I see that they get it, it's worth the work involved. Nobody feels left behind. When I find something that does not work I change it. Being an instructor is not easy but it can be rewarding. I enjoy what I do.
I am very interested in this course as I had never thought to give an actual learning assesment to my students, I have gone under the assumptions that majority of my students are tactile learners as I teach fashion design classes. Very interesting read, thank-you
Hi Dennis, I am also an online instructor now and am intrigued by your post! Would you be kind enough to send me an example of your micro-learning object pages? polick.susan@pti.edu Thanks! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
Hi J,Thanks for your post to the forum.I agree that using demos (and especially if you can get students involved!) is a great teaching tool. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Susan Polick
What if you have an auditory learner? Or is that unlikely because such students aren't attracted to the field?
Great point Robert. It can be frustrating when a student was presented with just a great presentation but they didn't "get" any of it. We have to remember that it wasn't the student or us at fault. Just that we need to look at other approaches.
I teach in an online environment so I have the advantage that once I develop a particular resource, I can use it again and again with minimal effort. To this end, I try to develop resources aimed at each of the major learning styles. I do have to admit that some course topics do not lend themselves well to each style.
When I have a student having problems, I do try to figure out what learning style they prefer so I can point them to the more suitable method.
On my web site I'm starting to develop micro-learning object based pages. Each page is on a fairly narrow topic but has resources for each style.
Using Demos to facilitate learning will increase
participation in your classroom and get more students involved.
J. E. Wright
