Learning Styles and Hypertext: Exploring User Attitudes

One hundred final year undergraduate students accessed reading material and tutorial activities in the form of hypertext documents with the Netscape browser and their learning styles were classified according to Kolb’s (1984) four-way classification of Divergent, Accommodative, Convergent and Assimilative. It was expected that, in the same way that formal lectures and final examinations suit particular students, and hence particular learning styles, activities conducted in a hypertext environment would also be more attractive to particular learning styles. Surprisingly this was not the case. While a number of differences were found in attitudes to hypertext documents between male / female and full-time / part-time students, the only significant difference found between learning styles was a preference by students classified as Convergers to have printed course notes rather than hypertext documents. Initial conclusions from this study are that student attitudes to hypertext appear to be independent of learning style.