Learning Styles

Educators have long understood that different people learn in different ways. Research in brain and cognitive science has borne out this intuitive conclusion.

Educational scientists have developed many learning models to describe the way people learn. From the many tens of models debated in the academic literature, iDL Systems has synthesized five "learning styles" that represent the broad spectrum of ways in which people learn. The learning styles are:

Apprenticeship

Student learns step-by-step, following the lead of the instructor

Incidental

Student learns through case studies or storytelling

Inductive

Student is exposed to a number of examples leading to a conclusion about a general principle

Deductive

Student learns a principle, then applies it to extrapolate trends or observe parametric variation

Discovery

Student learns by conducting experiments, then analyzing the results

In addition to a student's learning style preference, iDL's adaptive learning system also takes into account the student's preference for delivery media - text, audio, video, simulation, etc.- and interactivity. This three-dimensional approach to teaching ensures that there are many ways to experience an adaptive learning course - enough to let every student learn the way he or she wants to.

As a student progresses through a course, iDL's Adaptive Learning Server continuously collects data on the student's performance, steering the student into the learning style that best fits him or her and ensuring that every student masters the material.