Abstract:

Various research findings have indicated that different personality types of students, especially in online education, experience the study environment, their learning efforts and achievements (learning outcomes) differently and face different challenges and/or pressures. In line with current trends towards individualisation and adjustment of pedagogical approaches with the students’ needs, DOBA Business School (hereinafter referred as DOBA) decided to undertake its own research to answer the following research questions:
(1) What is the personality of online students and does it substantially differ from the personality of traditional students?
(2) Are there different personality types among DOBA’s online students and do they require the adoption of different pedagogical approaches?

To tackle these research questions, the quantitative research strategy was adopted. The data was collected by means of a structured online survey questionnaire that was distributed via official school e-mail addresses.

The survey questionnaire included:
(a) measures of the big five personality dimensions,
(b) measures of attitudes towards online learning and
(c) measures of reported study behaviour.

Data collection took place in June and July 2017. The target population for this research was composed of all the students enrolled in DOBA’s online study programmes. All members of the target population were invited to participate, which eventually lead to a self-selective sample of n = 331 online students (30 percent response rate).

The results showed that online students are highly conscientious with rather high scores on dimensions of extraversion, openness and agreeableness and with a moderate level of neuroticism, which indicates partial emotional stability (or lability). Next, the method of cluster analysis identified two personality types of online students with somewhat different profiles of results on attitudinal and behavioural scales.

The aim of this paper is twofold:
(1) to discuss the implications of research results for the future implementation of online courses and the required support from teachers/professors and e-tutors as well as
(2) to review and evaluate the opportunities and obstacles for the various levels (individual, group and course level) of adjustment and individualisation of pedagogical approaches according to students’ personality characteristics.

Keywords:

Online students, personality dimensions, personality types, adjustment of pedagogical approaches.