The effects of personality and learning style on the achievement of adult learners in community college online education: An investigation based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Kolb Learning Styles Inventory

The community college system in North Carolina provides a wide variety of educational opportunities to the communities it serves. Community college courses offer students an economical, convenient, and efficient method to gain an education. No offerings exemplify this more completely than the increased use of distance education, particularly Internet-based instruction. Adult learners represent an ever-increasing percentage of those students who take advantage of Internet course offerings. A unique problem arises when placing adult learners into this type of distance education because many of them rely on traditional methods of learning, primarily face-to-face instruction. When faced with learning the material independently from an instructor, many adults struggle or even drop from their courses. The ability to predict which adult students will adapt well to online education would ease the transition for those students and allow the community colleges to provide assistance for students who might encounter issues while adjusting to the new format.; This study sought to establish a connection between personality types, learning styles, and Internet-based instruction. A high correlation between certain traits and styles can be used as an indicator of a predisposition for Internet-based instruction. Independent variables for this study include psychological type as determined by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and learning style determined by the Kolb Learning Styles Inventory (LSI). The dependent variable of achievement was determined by the standardized COMPASS placement test. The delivery strategy divided respondents into four groups: (a) Internet-based MAT 080, (b) face-to-face traditional "seat" class of MAT 080, (c) Internet-based ENG 111, and (d) face-to-face traditional "seat" class of ENG 111. The same faculty taught the ENG sections and the same faculty taught the MAT sections.; Three null hypotheses were tested and stated: (a) there is no significant difference in achievement based on course format; (b) there is no significant difference in achievement based on psychological type; and (c) there is no significant difference in achievement based on learning style.; For this study, no discernable correlation was found between course format and achievement. Also not found was a discernable correlation between personality type, learning styles and a propensity for achievement in Internet-based instruction. There did however, appear to be a correlation between the personality type of Introversion and the preference for Internet-based instruction as well as the personality type of Extroversion and the preference for traditional "seat" sections of classes when the independent variables of psychological type were simplified into the two categories. It would be recommended that a much larger study be conducted on a national or international level to determine these results more conclusively.