Learning Styles and

Content Delivery Methods

Barbara Martinson and Sauman ChuDepartment of Design, Housing, and Apparel

DHA 4131 History of Visual Communication

Course Objectives:

consider the influence of social, technical, and aesthetic forces on design

gain an overview of design history

gain recognition skills in regard to various typesof design work

Games are effective tools for learning because they

offer students a hypothetical environment in which they

can explore alternative decisions without the risk of

failure. Thought and action are combined into

purposeful behavior to accomplish a goal. Playing

games teaches us how to strategize, to consider

alternatives, and to think flexibly (Poggenpohl, 2002).

Different games appeal to different people. This appeal

may be based in content, activity, or personal affinity

for game playing. We know that people have preferred

learning styles, but we know very little about the

relationship of learning style to learning within a game

context.

This project focuses on integrating the game concept

into class content and examines the interaction

between students’ learning styles to computer-game

content delivery.

Our research questions are:

1. Will students remember content presented in the game?

2. Do students with a certain learning style tend to do better on a quiz that includes content from the game?

3. Do students with a certain learning style spend more time playing the game?

4. Do students indicate a preference for the game (as measured by a survey) based on learning style?

The findings of this study will help to inform both

educators and educational technology developers. If the

results indicate that students with a certain learning style

did score higher on the test by using the game component

we could complete further research to see how to adapt

the game for other learning styles. Variations of a game

could be developed that would appeal to different learning

styles and users can select the variation that best suits

their learning style. Conversely, we could develop games

that take people out of their comfort zone in terms of

learning style and the notion of doing this within a game

context may be more appealing and fun.

This project is purposefully limited to a basic learning

activity—acquiring knowledge of facts. Future studies

could study the interaction of learning style with higher

thinking skills. Our hunch is that students with

concrete learning styles will have a greater affinity for

this learning game as it emphasizes concrete

knowledge.

Games as learning objects

Learning objects are small, reusable chunks of instructional materials that

can be included on course Web sites or with other digital instructional

materials. Sometimes they have no implicit instructional objective–they are

shell programs in which instructors can insert their own content (such as a

quiz game shell in which instructors insert their own questions), or media

elements that can be aggregated and used with other digital instructional

materials (such as a photograph or video clip). Sometimes they do have

specific instructional objectives but can be adapted to different learning

contexts.

Digital Media Center, University of Minnesota

There are two basic types of learning objects:

1. Content Resources Learning objects can consist of blocks of text,

photographs, illustrations, animations, or audio and video clips. These can

be included on course Web sites or with other digital instructional

materials. Sometimes complete courses or learning modules can be built

entirely from separate learning objects.

2. Learning Tasks Learning objects also can be multiple choice quizzes,

games, and other kinds of interactions. Sometimes they are

completely self-contained and require no customization; sometimes they

can be customized to meet your needs. Ideally,

they are easy to customize, and include instructions.

Digital Media Center, University of Minnesota

Process

1. Game developed by Chialing Hsieh Mattson, derived from a game developed in Sue Chu’s class using Flash.

2. Two levels: Ancient Letterforms and Calligraphic Scripts

3. Game was integrated into the course via WebCT.

4. Students played the game over a four day period and then took a quiz on the content on the fifth day.

5. The quiz asked students to match lettering samples with names of the scripts.

Game interface

Game interface

Game interface

Game interface

Quiz results

Overall mean on both levels 8.2/10 range:3-10

average times played 6.4 range: 2-18

Mean on Ancient letterforms4.6/5 range: 2-5

average times played 3 range: 1-8

Mean on Calligraphic Scripts3.6/5 range: 0-5

average times played 3.3 range: 1-10

Effect of Learning Style on achievement

Regression analysis was used to analyze the relationshipbetween score and learning style and score and numberof times played.

There was no significant relationship between learningstyle and performance on quiz

There was only a slight advantage to playing the game multiple times

Should we retest with the quiz to

check for

retention?

Issues Encountered and Confounding Variables

(what I learned)

Interface and viewing difficulties inevitability of technical issues

Students may have captured screen shots next time I would carry out a designed experiment and control for these type of confounding variables

Game was via computer; quiz was pencil/paperbuild quiz into game and make the quizpart of the learning tool

Outcomes: practical significance

Games can be used as tools to teach recognition

Game added variety to course; made studying fun

Use of a previously designed learning object made the project doable in terms of time and money

Learning styles in the sample population

The Gregorc Learning Style Delineator has four basic outcomes. The highest score in

each of the four learning styles was identified for each student.

Type of Learning Style Number of participants Percentage of sample

Concrete Random 18 42%

Concrete Sequential 15 35%

Abstract Random 5 11%

Abstract Sequential 4 9%

The results show that 77% of the students’ preferred learning style include concretelearning experiences.

Survey responses

Students completed a seven-question survey responding to questions about the effectiveness of games in the learning process and indicating preferences for certain learning activities.

These questions can be divided into three categories: 1. Questions about games as learning tools; 2. Questions about memory and assessment regarding

content attained from games; 3. Questions about learning activity preferences.

Games as Learning Tools

63% felt that games make learning process more efficient

Why?visual aids for memory, interactive nature of game, ability to go at one’s own pace, repeat as needed

No differences in learning style were found.

Games as Enjoyable

77% felt that games were enjoyableexcitement, challenging

19% felt games not enjoyablefrustration, lack of human presence, too much time

100% of those who found games enjoyable were students with concrete sequential learning style.

Games, Learning, and Assessment

63% felt that info from game was remembered better than info from lectures and readings

23% remembered info from lectures and readings better

Students who preferred the game tended to have a concrete learning style.

Preferred learning activities

Participants were asked to rank in order of preference seven learning activities: games,

group projects, lecture, projects, reading, websites, and writing. The table below shows

activity rankings as most preferred and activities ranked in the top three.

Activity: Games GroupProjects

Lecture Projects Reading Websites Writing

Rankedmostpreferred

11 1 9 12 3 4 3

Ranked intop three

25 7 26 26 9 20 16

Projects, lectures, and games were the most preferred learning activities; least preferred

included group projects and readings.

Learning Styles and Preferred Activities

Students who preferred projects tended to have concrete learning styles

Lecture was ranked in the top three by half of the participants and nearly equal proportions of each learning style were found in this group.

. The findings show that learning style did not affect performance on a quiz, nor did increasing times playing the game significantly affect performance. Students did show strong preferences for three types of learning activities: games, projects, and lecture.

Learning style may have played a small role in each of these preferences. The majority of participants had a concrete learning style as measured by the Gregorc Learning Style Delineator.

Students with concrete learning styles prefer the concrete world and instinctive responses to learning situations. They prefer demonstrations and prefer to work with physical objects.

That lecture was identified as one of the preferred learning activities was a surprise. As several students responded, they enjoy the interaction with the lecturer, the fact that the information is presented in a listener-friendly way, and the ability to diverge or elaborate on meaningful topics.

This study does indicate that games can be used as tools to teach various types of information within a college course. Games added variety to the design history course and made learning facts more fun.

The concrete nature of the game was appropriate for this particular group of students, most of whom had concrete learning styles.

Finally, the recycling of a previously design learning object made the project affordable in terms of time and money.

Thank you