Effects Of Supplemental Learning Opportunities Designed To Engage Different Learning Styles

We provided a series of one-hour supplemental learning opportunities (SLOs) outside of, but coordinated with, a sophomore-level engineering problem-solving course. The SLOs were designed to engage different aspects of active/real-world learning style preferences by adopting one of two approaches: 1) a structured and engaging classroom lecture environment with onpaper, problem-solving exercises, or 2) a hands-on, kinesthetically-active laboratory environment with integrated on-paper, problem-solving exercises. Preand post-SLO assessments revealed that students learned from both types of SLOs. Analysis of course exam grades revealed that students who attended one type of SLO did not consistently outperform students who attended the other type of SLO. Students whose preferences for sensory learning (as indicated by their scores on the Index of Learning Styles) were most strongly matched by the style of their SLO group (i.e., strongest sensory preferences attending kinesthetically active SLOs, and least sensory preferences attending classroom active SLOs) performed better on course exams than students with moderate sensory learning preferences attending either SLO group, and better than students whose preferences for sensory learning were least matched by the style of their SLO group. In some cases, the observed performance differences were statistically significant, although the mean grade point averages of students in the strongest, moderate, and least-matched groups were not statistically significant. Further analysis should help reveal to what degree student performance was related to learning style and SLO style match as opposed to other factors.