Learning Styles and Dyslexia Types – Understanding Their Relationship and its Benefits in Adaptive E-learning Systems

Abstract

Learning is a fundamental element of people’s everyday lives. Learning experiences can take the form of our interactions with others, through attending an educational establishment, etc. Not everyone learns in the same way, and even people who are considered to have a similar standard of abilities or proficiency will exhibit different learning styles. This does not necessarily mean that some students are better than others; it means that students are different from one another. Adaptive e-learning system should be capable of adapting the content to the user learning style, abilities and knowledge level. In this paper, we investigate the benefits of incorporating learning styles and dyslexia type in adaptive e-learning systems. Adaptivity aspects based on dyslexia type and learning styles enrich each other, enabling systems to provide learners with materials which fit their needs more accurately. Besides, consideration of learning styles and dyslexia type can contribute to more accurate student modelling. In this paper, the relationship between learning styles, the Felder–Silverman learning style model (FSLSM), and dyslexia type, is investigated. These relationships will lead to a more reliable student model.