Identification and Learning Styles' Variation Factors for a Hybrid and Distance Learning Professional Training ODL-SPOC

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the learning styles' variation of Physical Education and Sports‘(PES) trainee teachers in relation with demographic factors, type of hybrid or distance training, and technopedagogical design envisaged for designing an Open Distance Learning based on Small Private Online Courses (ODL-SPOCs) device. We used the Learning Styles Questionnaire (LSQ-Fa), an adapted and shortened version, as an instrument for measuring learning styles distributed to 65 trainee teachers in PES. We examined the effect of these independent variables: sex, age, license's type, work's experience in PES or sport, training's type, the content's form of our ODL-SPOCs and instructional tutoring needs and their interaction on variations in learning styles’ scores of PES trainee teachers at a threshold of p <0.05. The data is analyzed by ANOVA test by comparing the variables' frequencies. The results revealed that trainee teachers aged 30 and over scored higher than those aged 20 to 24 in three learning styles: reflectors, theorists and pragma-tists.Moreover, trainee teachers aged 30 and over scored higher than those aged 25 to 29 in three learning styles: reflectors, theorists and pragmatists.Thus, based on ANOVA test, we found that trainee teachers' hybrid or distance training and their technical problem-solving needs have the most influence on learning style scores' variation. Based on our results, we recommend to teachers who are SPOCs' designer-tutors to identify and verify the learners' learning styles variation in order to improve performance in open distance learning.