Abstract:

This paper presents the results of a data collection with the LIST-K questionnaire. This questionnaire measures students’ learning strategies and shows which strategies are particularly dominant or rather weak.

Learning strategies have long been a major area of research in educational science and psychology. In these disciplines, learning strategies are understood as intentional behaviors and cognitive skills that learners employ to effectively complete learning tasks, by selecting, acquiring, organizing, and integrating information into their existing knowledge for long-term retention.

The LIST-K, developed by Klingsieck in 2018, was chosen for accessing learning strategies due to its thematic suitability, widespread use, and test economy. It covers a total of four main categories (i.e., cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, management of internal resources, and management of external resources), each of which are subdivided into further subscales. With a total of 39 items answered via a 5-step Likert scale, the LIST-K can cover the topic relatively comprehensively and at the same time be completed in a reasonable amount of time of approximately 10 minutes.

The LIST-K was used as part of a combined data collection along with other questionnaires on their personal data, their preferences regarding certain learning elements, their learning style (i.e. the ILS), and personality (i.e. the BFI-10). A total of 207 students from different study programs participated via an online survey created using the survey tool "LimeSurvey". Participation in the study was voluntary, anonymously, and in compliance with the GDPR.

Overall, the results of the LIST-K show that students are willing to work intensively on relevant topics intensively and to perform beyond the requirements of the course seeking additional learning material. At the same time, however, it is apparent that the organization of their own learning process could still be improved. For example, students start repeating content too late (mean=2.70; SD=0.92) and do not set goals for themselves and do not create a learning plan (mean=3.19; SD=0.90). They also learn without a schedule (mean=2.23; SD=0.97) and miss opportunities to learn together with other students (mean=3.17; SD=0.94).

The findings of the data collection will be used to create an AI-based adaptive learning management system that will create individualized learning paths for students in their respective courses. From the results of the LIST-K, it appears that the adaptive learning management system should primarily support organizational aspects of student learning. Even small impulses (an individual schedule of when to learn what or a hierarchical structuring of the learning material) could help students to complete their courses more successfully and improve their learning.

Keywords:

Learning strategies, learning management system, AI in higher education, LIST-K.