Learning Preferences and Learning Styles of Online Adult Learners

Learning preferences and learning styles are a way to enhance the quality of learning, especially for those who are alone in front of a computer, i.e. online students. Any student can adapt learning processes, activities and techniques, if he/she is able to understand his/her own personal characteristics and the consequences of possible different experiences. In order to help students to learn better, instructors should provide an easy way for them to make discoveries about themselves. Thus, the aim of this chapter is “to reveal possible learning preferences and learning styles of students in online environments” and “to provide sample ideas for e-instructors ” to address these diverse learners. For this purpose, qualitative research methods will be used. The literature will be reviewed and students will be posed several open-ended questions about their learning preferences. Based on the findings, learning preferences and learning styles will be grouped in a general way, and e-instructors provided with examples of instructional media, materials and methods.