Relationships Among Learning Strategies, Patterns, Styles, and Achievement in Web-Based Courses

This study analyzed the relationships among student achievement, learning strategies, learning patterns, learning styles, and student characteristics. The population of this study included 99 students taking two Web-based courses offered by a land grant university in the United States. Seventy-four students (75%) completed a learning style test, an on-line questionnaire, and received grades by the end of the semester. The learning style test was the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT), which classified students as either field-dependent or field-independent. The on-line questionnaire consisted of two scales (learning strategy and learning pattern), with pilot-test reliabilities of .80 and .72, respectively. The students used most of the learning strategies to find important ideas from lectures and to memorize key words of important concepts. They seemed to be more interested in checking their grades than in communicating with the class and instructors via e-mail, discussion forum, or chat room. Learning strategy was the only significant factor that explained about one-fourth of student achievement measured by class grade.