Research Article The Learning Preferences among Nursing Students in the King Saud University in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Survey Homood A. Alharbi, 1 Adel F. Almutairi, 2 Eyad M. Alhelih, 1 and Abdualrahman S. Alshehry 1 1 College of Nursing, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2 King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Correspondence should be addressed to Homood A. Alharbi; homalharbi@ksu.edu.sa Received 26 December 2016; Revised 10 April 2017; Accepted 3 May 2017; Published 23 May 2017 Academic Editor: Lesley Wilkes Copyright © 2017 Homood A. Alharbi et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. Te present study aimed to identify the most common learning preferences among the nursing students in Saudi Arabia and to investigate the associations of certain demographic variables with the learning preferences. Methods. All the undergraduate nursing students in the nursing college were requested to participate in this descriptive cross-sectional study. An Arabic version of the Felder-Silverman learning style model (FSLSM) questionnaire was used to examine the learning preferences among undergraduate nursing students. Results. A total of 56 (43%) completed questionnaires were included in the fnal analysis. Results of the present study indicate that the most common learning preferences among the nursing students were visual (67.9%), followed by active (50%) and sequential (37.5%) learning preferences. Te verbal style was the least common learning preference (3.6%) among the nursing students. Tere was no association between gender and learning preferences ( > .05). Conclusion. Te present study concluded that the visual, active, and sequential styles are the commonest learning preferences among the nursing students. Te nursing educators should emphasize the use of this information in their teaching methods to improve learning skills among the nursing students. 1. Introduction Te concept of learning styles has developed among pro- fessional educators at all stages of the educational organiza- tion [1]. Some students seem to learn better when information is presented through words known as verbal learners, whereas others seem to learn better when it is presented through pic- tures known as visual learners [2]. Some learners are active and prefer to work in a group, while others are refective who prefer independent learning [1, 3]. Tere is evidence that diferent learning styles afect academic achievements. For instance, Surjono examined the efects of diferent learning styles on undergraduate student achievement and the fnd- ings suggested that students learn better when there is a match between students’ learning styles and their instructor’s teach- ing styles [4]. Similarly, Ahmad et al. [5] reported a signifcant relationship between students learning preference and the academic achievement. Nevertheless, C ¸ akiroglu reported many variables that can afect academic achievement which include learning styles and studying habits [6]. In a previous study [7], in problem-based learning (PBL) class sessions, students who preferred active learning partici- pated in the group and engaged in solving the problems, while refective learners tend to work independently and used pre- viously acquired information more ofen compared to active learners [7]. However, there were no statistical diferences between the two styles (active style versus refection style) in regard to the exam scores and genders [7]. Similarly, Nuzhat et al. [8] reported diferent learning preferences among und- ergraduate medical students in Saudi Arabia. Research in the feld of teaching and learning has sug- gested that students have a variety of learning methods. For example, some students remember best if they hear materials, and therefore they prefer verbal form of learning while others remember best if they see materials, and therefore they prefer visual form of learning. In the learning process, student uses diferent ways and resources to improve in their learning, which is known as learning styles [9, 10]. Te learning style is defned as “the biologically and developmentally imposed Hindawi Nursing Research and Practice Volume 2017, Article ID 3090387, 7 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/3090387