Learning Styles in Distance Education Students Learning to Program

This paper reports on an experiment looking at differences in students’ learning style preferences and the relationship with observed work related practices and recent findings from the ongoing research. Three questionnaires to measure learning and cognitive style preferences; Honey & Mumford, Grasha and Reichmann and an English translation of Antonietti’s questionnaire on visual and verbal strategies (QSVV) were made available and distributed via the web in electronic format to 60 volunteers prior to their taking the Open University’s distance learning course M206 “An Object Orientated Approach”. An additional questionnaire gathering demographic information, perceived level of comfort with computing and other related measures was also published electronically. A significant gender difference was found on the Honey & Mumford measures of pragmatism and theorist, with significant difference between genders and from published normal values. The Grasha–Reichmann scales showed no differences between genders but the sample studied had higher than expected scores on both the independent and collaborative scales compared to published norms. Further investigation resolved the possible presence of two types of student, an independent type and a collaborative/participant type.