Footsteps of adaptive online learning: Tracing the relationships between online self-regulation, cognitive style, online interaction and gender

Abstract

Learners with certain personality traits adapt well to different online environments, while others may miss the necessary information for themselves or disappear entirely in the learning process. Therefore, in online learning, understanding the relationships between significant personality traits of learners and potential variables that can contribute to or hinder the learning experiences, and furthermore, the questioning of their impact on learning performance is critical to delivering effective learning experiences. The main aim of this associational study is to examine the relationships and effects of specific variables (online self-regulation, cognitive style, online interaction, and gender), on online learning and thus, to create a partial roadmap for effective online learning practices in the context of learning analytics. It also intends to understand the learners at a fine-grained level and to support individualized online learning environments. Correlation and simple linear regression analyses were used to analyze the data obtained. The findings of the study indicate that the online self-regulation scores of field-independent learners are much higher than those of field-dependent learners. In addition, there is a moderate positive correlation between the online self-regulation and cognitive style. The online self-regulation scores of the female learners are found to be higher than those of the male learners. The relationships between the variables analysed in the study are discussed in a holistic manner. It is thought that the study findings may contribute to the information on the adaptive online learning within the framework of learning analytics.