Learning Styles of Distance Students Attending a Pilot E-College in China: Survey Results

E-learning implemented in distance education has been developing rapidly in China since 1999. Along with the rapid development, China modern distance education encountered many difficulties. How to provide personalized learning support for massive distance learners is one of the difficulties. Researchers have suggested that learning style as habitual ways of perceiving and processing information has significant relationship with learning process and performances. The purpose of this study was to survey distance learners´ preferred learning styles using Index of Learning Style Questionnaire, developed by Felder and Soloman, 1997. The participants are 1723 distance learners randomly selected from Beijing Open University. The result revealed that the participants favored active, sensory, visual and sequential learning style. And significant differences were detected in all background variables. Finally, some pedagogical suggestions were provided on basis of the quantitative results.