Learning Styles and
Content Delivery Methods
Barbara Martinson and Sauman Chu
Department 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 types
of 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
average times played
Mean on Ancient letterforms
8.2/10
range:3-10
6.4
range: 2-18
4.6/5
range: 2-5
average times played 3
Mean on Calligraphic Scripts
averagetimes played
range: 1-8
3.6/5
range: 0-5
3.3
range: 1-10
Effect of Learning Style on achievement
Regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship
between score and learning style and score and number
of times played.
There was no significant relationship between learning
style 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/paper
build quiz into game and make the quiz
part 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 popula tion
The G rego rc Learning Style Deli nea tor ha s four basic outcomes. The h ighe st score in
each of the fou r learning styles was id entified for each s tuden t.
Type of Learning S tyle
Number of participants
Percentage of sample
Concrete Random
18
42%
Concrete Sequen tial
15
35%
Abstract Rando m
5
11%
Abstract Sequen tial
4
9%
The results show that 77% of the studen ts’ preferred le arning style include concr ete
learning exper iences.
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 enjoyable
excitement, challenging
19% felt games not enjoyable
frustration, 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 pr eference seven l earning activiti es: games,
group p rojects, le cture , projects, reading, websit es, and wr iti ng. The table below show s
activit y rank ings as most preferred and activities ranked in the top three.
Activity:
Ranked
most
preferred
Ranked in
top three
Games
11
25
Group
Projects
1
Lecture
7
Projects
Reading
Websites
Writing
9
12
3
4
3
26
26
9
20
16
Projects, lectures, and game s 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