Students’ Learning Styles: How Does It Affect Students’ Understanding of the Materials in an Online Academic Article Writing Class?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic affects the learning process in the world that must be done online without direct teaching. Student learning situations may be different from direct learning; therefore, students must adapt again to this online learning system that can influence their learning styles. There have been numerous studies examining students' learning styles, but the information on whether learning styles influence their new online learning adaptation is not sufficient. Thus, this present study is important in analyzing students’ learning styles and how learning styles affect students’ understanding of the materials given by the teacher in an online Academic Article Writing class. This research used the descriptive qualitative method while the data were collected by distributing a questionnaire and conducting a structured interview. The subject of this research was 21 students who took the Academic Article Writing course of the English Education Department at UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya. The result showed that most of the students possessed visual learning styles, the second position was auditory learning styles, and the least were students who had kinaesthetic learning styles. Additionally, the result of the questionnaire and interview shows that there are several reasons that do affect students' understanding of the material presented in Academic Article Writing’s online classes. Almost all students have a visual learning style and according to the teaching method when in this AAW online class.