2020 Learning Style Survey – how our students like to learn

Learning Style Survey

770 students completed UAS BFI Vienna’s 2020 Learning Style Survey. This fantastic response rate provides a solid basis for detailed analysis of our students’ learning styles and preferences.

The results of the survey, which was carried out by higher-education teaching and learning expert Dietmar Paier, clearly show that learning styles vary greatly in some cases depending on the student's degree programme, whether they are studying full-time or part-time, and their age.

In other words, the data reveals a wide variety of learning styles among our students. The responses to the question about use of digital media for study purposes produced some surprising findings.

Here are a few of the highlights from the 2020 Learning Style Survey

• WhatsApp is by far the most widely used digital learning tool among both bachelor and master students.
• Many students also use online videos, instructional videos and webinars on sites like YouTube.
• Social networks such as Facebook are used much less frequently as a learning tool or learning environment than expected.
• Use of digital media like e-journals and e-books is now commonplace among lots of UAS BFI students.
• Overall, the survey only reveals slight differences in the preferences of male and female students, but the data clearly indicates that master students make greater use of electronic literature and databases than bachelor students.

Summary

These and many other findings about learning behaviour will be summarised for students, degree programmes and lectures for detailed discussion. Plans for projects to enhance course design will then be drawn up on the basis of this consultation process. This will mainly benefit students, but will also provide lecturers with valuable information and inspire new ideas for developments in teaching and learning.

Finding out about students’ learning styles and preferences is important for the university as it enables us to align teaching and learning processes even more closely with the actual learning behaviours of our students. This helps to make the teaching at UAS BFI Vienna more interactive, varied and motivational.