Learning Styles &

Student Use ofOn-line lessons

D. Lee, C. Speth, P. Hain

UNL, Agronomy & Horticulture

“The text book was not worth the money”

Confession: I do not follow texts

- Information density

“It was difficult to use the text book”

Patty Hain

Distance Education Grants

Segregation

Independent Assortment

Quantitative traits

Mitosis & Meiosis

Gene mapping(2 pt & 3 pt)

Gene ExpressionGene CloningPCRGenetic Engineering

PlasmidBacteria

cell

Bacteriacolonies

Petri dish

How did you use the animations?

05

10

1520

2530

35

4045

50

1234

• 1 = To help understand the concepts.

• 2 = Instead of reading the text.

• 3 = As needed or if I had time.

• 4 = Didn’t view the animations. It would have taken too much time.

Dr. Carol Speth

Approach to Studying

University of Edinburgh

Approaches and Study SkillsInventory for Students

“Assist”

18 Question Instrument

MotivationIntention to Process

Study Method

Deep

• 2. When I’m reading an article or book, I try to find out for myself exactly what the author means.

• 6. Regularly I find myself thinking about ideas from lectures when I’m doing other things.

• 10. When I’m working on a new topic, I try to see in my own mind how all the ideas fit together.

Strategic

• 3. I organize my study time carefully to make the best use of it.

• 5. I look carefully at instructors’ comments to see how to get higher grades next time.

• 7. I’m pretty good at getting down to school work whenever I need to.

Surface

• 1. Often I find myself wondering if the work I am doing here is really worthwhile.

• 4. I concentrate on learning just those bits of information I have to know to pass.

• 8. Much of what I’m studying makes little sense: it’s like unrelated bits and pieces.

Dr. Carol Speth

Two Step Evaluation

-ASSIST (early in semester)

-On-line lesson evaluation (end of semester)

Alpha .35 Deep=30 (20 m, 10 F)

Alpha .71 Strategic=32 (18 m, 14 f)

Alpha .68 Surface=54 (31 m, 23 f)

Results: ASSISTSpring 2002- Spring 2004

Five Semesters

Low Cronbach’s alpha

6. Regularly I find myself thinking about ideas from lectures when I’m doing other things.

Agree Disagree 5 4 3 2 1

5. I look carefully at instructors’ comments to see how to get higher grades next time.

Agree Disagree 5 4 3 2 1

Mean Z Scores by Group

Zdeep Zstrat Zsurf

Deep 0.91 -0.14 -0.57

Strategic -0.25 1.0 -0.38

Surface -0.56 -0.53 0.81

Animations

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

DE ST SU

1234

• 1 = To help understand the concepts.

• 2 = Instead of reading the text.

• 3 = As needed or if I had time.

• 4 = Didn’t view the animations. It would have taken too much time.

All groups similar

Quiz

Quiz

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

DE ST SU

1234

• 1 = Tried to understand and pass on first try.

• 2 = Took quiz, then went back and learned what I didn’t know.

• 3 = Tried to learn just enough to pass.

• 4 = Took the quiz over and over until I passed, not reading the material.

How much did you learn from…?

Pct

lecture

Pct

lab

Pct internet

Pct other

Deep 37 38 15 10

Strategic 47 37 14 4

Surface 42 32 18 6