Learning styles, web-based instruction, and construction project performance criteria

Ann Bib

An ANOVA Analysis of the Relationship between Business Students' Learning Styles and Effectiveness of Web Based Instruction (Kozub, 2010)

Education has transformed in the last few generations. Technology has provided the means to introduce new platforms for knowledge transfer. Some classes are offered entirely online, others still follow the traditional format, and still others use some combination of the two which are referred to as hybrid classes. Given all the different options that are available to provide educational content, it would be reasonable to assume that students with individual learning preferences would be able to find different options that would work better for them. However, the concept of individualized learning preferences represents something that has been debated in certain academic circles. Therefore, this experiment represents an opportunity to see how the concepts related to individual learning preferences.

The research design included participants that were undergraduate students in Taxes and Personal Finance. Some students received the traditional classroom experience in a class section while others received a web-only design and still others received a hybrid design. A survey that identified learning styles among the participants was collected before the class section began and then again afterwards. Statistical ANOVA tests were performed to see if there were any statically significant differences. However, there were no statistically significant correlations that were found between the various learning styles and the method of content delivery. This research could have many broad implications. One such implication is that web-based college classes might be a lower cost option to administer classes than traditional classroom settings and could be implemented on a wide basis.

Perceptions of Various Performance Criteria by Stakeholders in the Construction Sector of Hong Kong (Lai & Lam, 2009)

All construction projects have pretty much the same set of stakeholders regardless of their size or complexity. One experiment conducted in Hong Kong which consists of clients, consultants (designers) and contractors and looked at project outcomes from a range of these perspectives based on nine performance criteria. The researchers used a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to analyze the data that was collected. The data consisted of input from the participants and their ratings of how the project fared against nine different performance criterion that are generally found within this industry.