Everyone learns things differently. That’s no secret. But what’s the best way to find out how someone learns?
VARK is a system designed to provide answers to that question. The letters stand for Visual, Aural, Reading/writing, and Kinesthetic. According to its founder, Neil Fleming, over 500,000 people visit the site each year.
The test is made up of 16 questions and its results explain to students how they best learn. Most students possess more than one learning style—or all four—to varying degrees. When it comes to teaching, learning, and communication in general, understanding these concepts is important to effectiveness and clarity.
At StateFoodSafety, we realize the learning issues at hand. Our Learning Management System, or “LMS,” incorporates various teaching methods to meet the needs of students with differing learning styles. In each of our courses, students visually learn though interactive avatars and relevant images; they aurally learn through narration, which is featured in every slide; they learn by reading through the scripts for the narration located on every screen; finally, they learn kinesthetically through interactivities that put them in the scene and allow them to perform tasks with their mouse.
Each of these methods of teaching and learning is necessary to reach a broad, diverse base of students. Since food safety training is necessary for everyone in foodservice, and all types of people work in foodservice, the training needs to be palatable for all kinds of people. If you have taken one of our courses, you know that our training is just that.
To find out more about VARK and your own learning style, go here: vark-learn.com. (I’m visual first, aural second.)
—Jeremy Howard
