Learning strategies and learning styles in distance learning in higher education

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to identify distance students' learning strategies and styles and find out the effect of their learning styles on their learning strategies in higher education. It examined 158 faculty survey responses to identify students' learning strategies (academic thinking, complex cognitive strategy use, management of time and effort, contacts with others, and simple cognitive strategy use) and their learning styles (intuitive, logical, independent, social, active, verbal, and audio-visual) in distance learning. Methods: A survey study design was used to fully display the learning styles and learning strategies that students employed in distance education. Results: Research findings displayed that most distance students used a combination of various learning styles and employed all learning strategies at high, medium, or low frequency. The most preferred learning style was the logical learning style and the complex cognitive strategy use was the most preferred learning strategy. In contrast, academic thinking and contacts with others were the least used strategies and audio-visual and independent learning styles were the least preferred styles. The results demonstrated significant relationships between independent learning style and management of time and effort strategy use and verbal, social and audio visual learning styles and contacts with others strategy in distance learning. Discussion: Explanations for these results and their implications were also discussed within the scope of the study.