Conclusion - How to be a Successful Online Learner

Conclusion

What works best for you?

Hopefully, in this module, you have learned a few things about yourself that you didn't know or simply never thought about before. As you go on with your academic and professional lives, think about how your thinking works and how your brain seems to learn.

Also, keep in mind these final notes:

Application to study skills

Specific study skills can sometimes be categorized within the different learning styles.
When working on improving your study habits, keep in mind your personal preference. That does not mean you should only use strategies that conform with your style. Use whatever works for you, here and now.

Short-comings

No computer survey can know more about yourself than you do.
New evidence suggests that effective learning styles depend more on the nature of the subject than the person learning it. Therefore, the best policy is to be versatile.

Be versatile!

There are going to be situations where you have no choice on how to learn something. In these cases, you want to be versatile, and have many different strategies at your disposal.
Work on improving your use of learning skills associated with a style you are less comfortable with. The only way to grow is to push yourself to do things that are out of your comfort zone.

Applying it to Your Life

Now that you have learned about three different methods for determining learning styles, let's put your new knowledge to use! Pick a course you are taking, if possible one that includes a test or exam. Look at your calendar and apply your learning styles to create a study plan for the week before the test using studying strategies that support your learning style. Refer to the example below for a guide.

Antoine has a test in three weeks for his biology course. He has determined that according to the VARK and Felder-Solomon methods he is a visual learner, while he tends to be interpersonal and linguistic according to Multiple Intelligences.

One week before the test, he draws diagrams that help him map out concepts and understand how they relate to each other. He studies by reviewing his diagrams and modifying them with notes, which tend to include symbols as much as they do words. A few days before the test he gets some friends together and explains his diagrams to them, expressing the concepts in his own words and responding to their questions. The first part of his strategy supports his visual learning style, while the second part supports his interpersonal and linguistic learning style.