Tips for Being an Online Student: Adult Learning Styles
Learning styles change frequently during childhood, but they rarely change as adults. In addition, the learning styles of adults differ greatly from their childhood counterparts. Learn the essential tips for becoming an online student who puts your learning style at your service.
The basics
When discussing children’s education, learning styles are generally grouped into four categories:
Auditory learning
Visual learning
Kinesthetic learning
Experimental learning
College admissions workers often use this understanding to help new students find their way to university by helping them get off to a good start. The goal of the college admissions office is to ensure that a young student is not frustrated enough to drop out of school and withdraw from college.
The learning styles of adults differ from those of children or even young freshmen. Whether through college admissions or e-learning at an online university, adult learning styles fit in perfectly with the wide variety of multimedia applications currently available. This makes tips for online students that are adult oriented and are so important on many college websites.
Unfortunately, traditional schools generally fail to take advantage of adult learning styles. Rather than making good use of the various learning methods that adults appreciate, they are primarily directed to the visual or auditory learning styles of young researchers.
Discovering your style
While adult learning styles draw many clues to the learning styles defined for children’s learners, life experiences and greater maturity have created different approaches.
There are currently four adult learning styles that have been crystallized by the Alternative Dispute Resolution group (1).
Practical demonstrations
Group Discussions and Peer Interaction
Case studies and analyzes
Play a role
Strange as it may seem, the online academic setting used so far is far superior to adult learning styles than traditional colleges. The tips for being an online student are not lacking and most of the information provided by various distance education institutions is actually aimed at a more mature audience.
Some tips to get started
Learning to capitalize on your adult learning styles while attending an online university is the first step in determining your potential for success. Start by answering a quiz to see if you can be a good online learner, as defined by Bright Hub’s Laurie Patsalides.
Then, discover how online university relies on information retention demonstrations. Thanks to the availability of streaming videos, these demonstrations can be viewed over and over again, making them the ideal learning tool to engage the interest of an adult learner.
Investigate the group discussion that is part of the class. There is no doubt that your online training requires interactions with the instructor, but does it also allow for forum posts and online discussions with peers? This is one of the most valuable adult learning styles because it allows you to learn from other adults and their life experiences. Since online training allows you to spend hours on online forums, it is preferable to the limited interactions available in a traditional classroom.
Case studies used by an online university may include audio reports, written assessments, and the possibility of peer interaction. The same goes for the role play. With the availability of multimedia presentations, adult learning styles are perfectly suited for online education in any progressive online university.