Learning style and learning method preference in project management education: What happens when things get more complex?

The transformed goal of project management education is to prepare learners in coping with actual project complexity rather than to prepare 'trained technicians' who understand project management methods and techniques but struggle to adapt in the complex environment of a project. Games and simulation exercise are potential solutions as they enable learners to experience and solve complex project management problems with no requirement to commit resources to the actual project. This research empirically examines whether learning style affects students' learning method preference when project management problems with different levels of complexity are presented. After playing more complex project management games and undertaking a less complex e-Learning simulation exercise, the learning style and learning method preference of 126 MSc Management of Projects students are assessed and analysed quantitatively. The result suggests a strong statistical significance to accept a hypothesis that the "intuitive vs sensing" learning style dimension (proposed by Felder and Soloman) affects the learning method preference of a learner. Intuitive learners (78% of them) prefer the games, whereas sensing learners (54% of them) prefer the e-Learning simulation exercise. A strong preference of intuitive learners towards the games can be explained by the higher level of complexity and surprises in the games which they tend to prefer over well-established methods and repetitions. Sensing learners tend to be patient with details and to favour predictable problems. This is consistent with the attributes of the e-Learning simulation exercise: less complex, more predictable, repetitive, and filled with detail-oriented activities. The findings not only suggest a correlation between learning styles and learning method preferences in a project management context, but also explain how project complexity plays a part in their relationship. This is crucial as projects are becoming more complex and complexity is one of the main reasons why projects fail.