This article examines various learning styles relative to computer use. The learning theories discussed are: (1) Productive thinking, (2) Creative thinking, (3) Attention directing, (4) Lear­ ning strategies, (5) Non

Four-year colleges and universities have invested time, faculty, floor space, and monies for software and hardware in teaching introductory courses in Management Information Systems (MIS). Do these resources increase level of (hiformation fun­ damentals)? This paper reports on before and after results of a questionnaire on given to 143 students taking an introductory MIS course. Differences in amount of learning are analyzed from perspective of a variety of demographic factors (age, gender, typing skills, and access) and Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory (KLSI). Success in most businesses today require people who are literate. To help meet this requirement in information fundamentals and to make their graduates more marketable, coUeges and universities have allocated faculty, hardware, software, and physicid space to teach introductory courses in computers. Many high schools and junior high schools have also introduced courses jiimed at nusing students' literacy. If these schools are successful in raising students' fluency to same level as those students completing college level courses, need for introductory col­ lege courses in would be reduced and perhaps even dropped. For those students who still need introductory courses, tailoring instruction to their learning styles could raise to even higher levels. As university professors, our goal was to better understand which factors appear to in­ fluence both incoming levels of literacy, as well as (possibly) influence learning process itself. This knowledge could assist admLinistrators and teachers in a variety of ways (e.g., placement of incoming students into higher-level courses based upon a predetermined, validated test score). The authors surveyed over 500 university students on literaq^ to obtain data on incoming students. That survey produced 436 viable questionnaires. TTie authors then surveyed same students upon completion of their first college-level class to ob­ tain data on how much students learned. The latter survey produced 143 viable question­ naires, which provided enough to test our research hypothesis. 25 1 Brock et al.: Improvements in linked to gender and learning s Published by CSUSB ScholarWorks, 1992 Journal of International Information Management Volume 1, Number 1 This paper discusses (1) an overview of and learning styles in literature; (2) design, methodology, and nature of two surveys; and (3) results, tests, and explorations. Finally (4) we provide conclusions about incoming students finishing their first coUege-Ievel course. Suggestions are offered for future areas of research. SETTING FOR COMPUTER LITERACY AND LEARNING STYLES Background to Computer Literacy At first, literacy' was defined as the ability to use a to perform a task'' (Gattiker & Paulson, 1987). Now, however, term has taken on a variety of meanings and is defined in different ways for specific groups of people (Bjom-Anderson, 1983; Wynne, 1983). For example, it means far more than a person's ability to work with a microcomputer or terminal. It may describe a worker's ability to use appropriate application software such as spreadsheets, database, or word processing programs (Gattiker & Paulson, 1987). Computer may even be used to describe people's awareness of role of com­ puters in their l ives (Capron, 1990) This year l i teracy has come to include two dozen words or terms [that] are all anyone needs to talk intelligently about computers . (Dvorak, 1991). ^ In this present study, computer literacy exhibits these three levels or definitions of term: • Knowledge of what a is and of how it works. This requires understanding specific terminology because terms are unique and descriptive. • Interaction with a computer. This means ability to understand and properly use specific types of software for specific purposes. • Computer awareness. Included in this is an understanding of importance, versatili­ ty, pervasiveness, and potential uses of computers for both positive and negative purposes within society (Capron, 1990). Background to Learning Styles Kolb developed a theory and a nine-question instrument that provides a learning style inventory (KLSl). His theory moves a person's learning through a four-stage process in which a person: Starts with a concrete experience (CE), 2. Moves to reflective observation (RO), 3. Goes on to making abstract concepts (AC), and 4. Settles into active experimentation (AE). Words that describe CE, RO, AC, and AE stages or modes of this learning process are feeling, watching, thinking, and doing. The process is continuing, cyclic, and directed by a person's needs and goals (Kolb, 1984). Thus, process is highly individualized — and could be in­ fluenced by exigencies of day. A nine-item questionnaire, which requires self-description, produces scores for KLSl. Each item has a set of four words, with which a person rank orders words so sequency describes himor herself. Researchers recently use questionnaire to analyze 26 2 Journal of International Information Management, Vol. 1 [1992], Iss. 1, Art. 3 http://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/jiim/vol1/iss1/3 Improvements in Computer Literacy Journal of International Information Management learning style of software end users (Bostrom, Olfman, & Sein, 1990), but it has ^so had dissenters (Freedman, 1980). The shaded textbox below shows a half-sized version of ques­ tionnaire, modified to reflect current usage of best as being number 1. Textbox Learning Style Survey (with modified instructions)