Audience/online Information Interactions: New Research in Learning Preferences

Abstract

This investigation proposes the need for a paradigmatic shift in the production of formal and behavioral online information to accommodate the differing learning preferences of its audiences. Developments in the presentation of information itself and the management of its complexity have not progressed at the same rate as the technology that produces it. Psychologist David Kolb (1974) found that the combinations created by an individual's perception and processing techniques form a unique learning style, which becomes the most preferred and comfortable way to process information for that individual. This project poses the question: In what ways can the redesign of online information presentations, formal and behavioral, support the different learning preferences of complex audiences? As a response I share my work-in-progress research into audience/online information interactions. It emphasizes the need to acknowledge that information must be flexible and customized to enhance meaningful experience for different learners.