The Study of Learning Styles of Student and Their Opinions Toward Online Teaching Class in the Subject of Theory of Structures: A Case Study of Diploma I, Building Construction Division, Nan Technical College.

Abstract

This research is about to study the learning style of students and to examine students' opinions and academic achievement towards online teaching and learning management. The selected samples were 44 diploma students enrolled in Theory of Structures subject during summer semester of Academic Year 2020. The research instruments consisted of: (a) two groups of online classrooms: regular online classroom groups or passive type and flipped online classroom group or active types; (b) PowerPoint teaching materials and YouTube video tutorials; (c) VARK Learning Styles questionnaire; (d) student feedback questionnaire on the online learning experience of students; and (e) a test to measure academic achievement. Statistics used for analysis includes Mean, Standard Deviation (SD), and weighting of the learning styles. The results showed that the learning styles of both groups of students were mostly A style or listening learning with the weights of 3.11 and 3.35 for groups 1 and 2, respectively. The learning styles that students picked for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th ranks would be different for each group of students. Furthermore, the student’s opinions toward the online teaching and learning management were found that both groups of students had overall opinion with high level. However, the second group of students using the flipped online classroom model provided slightly better opinion feedback on online teaching and learning management. Finally, the academic achievement of students resulting from two groups using online learning had no significant difference in examination scores compared with those from the past academic achievement of regular classroom last year.