Investigating the high school students' preparedness for E-learning with regard to their learning styles

This paper aims to evaluate the amount of readiness and aptitude of students toward E-learning, and tries to understand the consequences of individual learning styles on the E-learning. This study has been done in an Iranian context. For this purpose, eighty-five students of a private high school participated in this study. They were between ۱۷ and ۱۸ years of age, and constructed the sample of the study. Data was collected using the VARK (visual, aural/auditory, read/ write and kinesthetic) questionnaire to assign the learner's preferred learning style and readiness test of the learner to electronic courses questionnaire to know the level of students' preparation for E-learning and deciding if they have low, medium or high level of readiness. The results indicated that learner's individual learning styles are effective in E-learning, by considering the important role of E-learning in the current educational system and its demand to have a crystal clear pedagogical content knowledge, focusing on the learner's learning style as a facilitator and serviceable factor would be constructive. Results suggest that most of the students with visual learning style were in a high level of readiness for E-learning. considering this findings, it is suggested that institutions and teachers use several methods and lesson plans for all the students with different learning style.

Keywords:

E-learning , learning style , VARK , students' readiness , pedagogical curriculum