From Pedagogical Paradigms to Hypermedia Design Patterns: Where to start? Franca Garzotto HOC - Hypermedia Open Center Department of Electronics and Information Politecnico di Milano, ITALY garzotto@elet.polimi.it Symeon Retalis Department of Technology Education and Digital Systems University of Piraeus, GREECE retal@unipi.gr Aimilia Tzanavari Department of Computer Science University of Cyprus, CYPRUS aimilia@ucy.ac.cy Ignazio Cantoni HOC - Hypermedia Open Center Department of Electronics and Information Politecnico di Milano, ITALY icantoni@como.polimi.it Abstract: Several studies exist that have reached the conclusion that there are significant correlations between learning style and learning outcome. Therefore, it becomes apparent that since a successful instructor is one who achieves the best “learning outcome” from most of his/her students, then he/she should be able to cater for his/her students’ different learning styles. When the instructor’s role is played by an educational hypermedia system, then its capabilities should be such so as to deal with different learning styles – something that can be regarded as primarily a design issue. This paper introduces the idea of using design patterns to provide solutions to the problem of how to best support learning styles via educational hypermedia applications. 1. Introduction In education, instructors adopt different instructional modes that correspond to their preferred teaching style: some focus on principles and others on applications; some present the material in a logical progression of small incremental steps, others proceed from the big picture to the details; some lecture and provide information using mainly spoken or written words, others like to present visual material, demos and experiments; some expect that students simply listen and watch, others provide frequent opportunities for discussing, questioning, and arguing. On the other side, students are characterized by different learning styles: preferences or predispositions to behave in a particular way when engaged in a learning process. Different students preferably focus on different types of information, tend to operate on the perceived information in different ways, and achieve understanding at different levels. For the purpose of this paper, we use the terms “learning style” and “learning preferences” interchangeably. A number of studies in traditional class based education (Pask 1976; Felder & Silverman 1988; Claxton & Murrell 1987) show that students whose learning styles match with the instructional approach “tend to retain information longer, apply it more effectively, and have more effective post course attitudes towards the subject than do their counterparts who experience learning/teaching mismatch” (Felder et al. 2002). On the other hand, we know that