Learning Styles Data and Designing Multimedia for Engineers

During the development of the multimedia learning environment Biology for Engineers, learning styles data from the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) and the Felder/Soloman index of learning styles (ILS) was obtained from over 150 engineering students at the University of Washington and compared with a pool of existing data from six earlier studies. Although there are discrepancies, the UW data broadly corresponds with the data from the combined pool. L-styles data, despite significant limitations, can contribute to the multimedia design process when viewed as a kind of customer survey of user preferences and a heuristic for considering various design alternatives. Future designers can either utilize the data presented in this study or test their own users