Mehdi Mehri Shahabadi - Voice Chancellor of the Research Affaires, Dezfuol Vocational and Technical College
Ali Poor Emami - Executive Manager of the Teacher education, Andimeshk center

The purpose of this study was to investigate the online learning styles among Iranian engineering distance learners. The mode of online learning is undeniable due to some issues regarding necessity to concern approach personalization of the learning environment and its relevance to the learning styles of e-learners. This study considered learning preferences of e-learners those who were enrolled in science virtual campus of Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST). The Felder-Silverman Learning Styles Index (FSLSI) was used to identify and compare learning styles of e-learners. It is important to suggest and give suitable feedback and particular recommendations to the practitioners and population of the research those who selected as sample of the study including 172 online students in different courses. A chi-square test of independence was conducted to verify research questions as statistical method by which the elegant and dependence of samples were assessed. Gender and academic level were also studied as effective factors that have interactions’ to learning style of students in e-learning courses. The results revealed that there was significant difference between learning styles of e-learners and their academic level in the dimensions of Sensory*Intuitive and Visual * Verbal. The results also revealed that there was significant difference between learning styles of students and their gender in the dimension of Sensory*Intuitive. Hence implications of the results for online course designers are suitable and significant. In order to conduct the online courses for engineer’s e-learners, the learning style of e- learners and two effective factor, gender and academic level, must be considered.

learning styles, engineering, online learning, e-learner and distance education