Learning Style, Culture and Delivery Mode in Online Distance Education

Adaptation to customer needs is a key component of competitiveness in any service industry. In online HE (higher education), which is increasingly worldwide, this adaptation must include consideration of learning styles. Most research shows that learning style has little impact on learning outcomes in online education. Nevertheless, students with different learning styles prefer different learning formats, so the issue is critical for competitiveness. Students preferring particular learning styles are unlikely to choose modes which do not fit their styles well and are likely to prefer learning modes that fit their learning styles. Thus, adapting online courses to learning style is important for competitiveness. We discuss how cultural dimensions can be related to preferred learning styles and argue that multi-mode distance classes are likely to attract the widest market. Generally, broad appeal in the market of adult-learners requires asynchronous modes for the main platform, but synchronous technologies can be embedded within basically asynchronous formats to increase appeal to some learning styles.