How to Create Courses That Cater to Multiple Learning Styles

Learners come in all shapes and sizes. Trying to keep everyone engaged and happy with one lesson can feel like trying to order pizza for a room full of picky eaters: someone’s always left feeling unsatisfied!

But don’t worry—I’ve got your back. Stick with me, and by the end of this guide you’ll discover simple ways to create lessons that click with everyone, from visual fans to hands-on learners, giving every student a slice they’ll enjoy.

Ready? Let’s jump in!

Create Courses That Cater to Multiple Learning Styles

When you’re building an online course, one of the best things you can do to boost student success is to make sure your material suits different ways of learning.

You don’t want your lessons to be geared only toward readers, leaving out those who thrive with visuals or hands-on activities.

Studies suggest there are benefits to mixing up teaching methods. In fact, around 50-70% of people don’t stick to just one learning style; instead, they learn better when course content hits different approaches throughout lessons (check out more course-building tips in this article about effective teaching strategies).

A smart course isn’t one-dimensional. Instead, try creating balanced lessons that use various visual aids, audio clips, reading materials, and interactive components.

If you’re just starting out with course creation, you might find it helpful to compare online course platforms to see which one gives you the flexibility you need to accommodate multiple learning styles.

Identify Different Learning Styles

Before tailoring your course to various learning styles, you’ll need to clearly understand what these learning styles look like.

We’ve all heard someone say, “I’m a visual learner,” but what does this mean in practice?

Typically, visual learners (about 65% of people) grasp concepts better through images, illustrations, graphs, and videos.

Auditory learners (approximately 30%) remember best by listening, discussing, or repeating back information aloud. Podcasts, recorded lectures, or discussion groups are especially helpful for them.

Kinesthetic learners (around 5%) prefer to learn through hands-on activities and movement.

Then there are reading/writing learners, those who like notes, text, and documentation.

Of course, nobody fits perfectly in these boxes all the time, but understanding these major styles helps you craft better content (here’s a useful guide on how to create a curriculum for a course that addresses different learning preferences).

Incorporate Visual Elements for Visual Learners

Visual learning isn’t about decorating your slides with pictures just for the heck of it.

Visual learners really need charts, images, or diagrams to help them make sense of complex ideas.

Try presenting key concepts in flowcharts, infographics, or short, animated tutorial videos (check out our tips on how to create educational videos that your students actually engage with).

Using consistent colors, fonts, and visual layouts in presentation slides will also help your visual learners stay focused and retain the information better.

A lot of folks overlook that visual learners can also benefit hugely from screen recordings with step-by-step walk-throughs, especially if you’re teaching something practical like software tools or digital tasks.

For example, instead of writing a lengthy paragraph describing how to navigate a particular software’s dashboard, try doing a quick screen capture video that visually takes students through each essential step.

Engage Auditory Learners with Sound and Discussion

Auditory learners are the folks who pick up new information best by hearing it rather than just seeing or reading about it.

These learners (roughly 30% of people, according to studies) thrive on listening, group discussions, and verbal exchanges — so don’t leave them out of your online course design.

Make sure to include audio resources like short podcasts, recorded lectures, or even casual audio snippets summarizing key points from every module.

Encourage students to engage in live Q&A or chat sessions via platforms like Zoom or Skype, as auditory learners do especially well when interacting verbally with peers and instructors.

You can also include narrated videos, screencasts, or voice-over presentations, which are effective for reinforcing content for this learner group (take a look at some tips on how to create educational videos that your students actually engage with).

Support Read/Write Learners with Written Content

Read/write learners get the most out of material when it’s in text form.

These are the students who love taking notes, summarizing lessons, and highlighting textbooks until they’re rainbow-colored.

To support these learners in your course, include well-organized written content like course manuals, lecture transcripts, detailed outlines, and PDF cheat-sheets.

Providing supplementary resources—like recommended readings, blog articles, or links to further written materials—also helps these learners dive deeper into the material at their own pace.

Discussion forums and Q&A threads are perfect environments to get these learners involved; they’ll eagerly type away their thoughts and takeaways.

Encourage Kinesthetic Learning Through Hands-On Activities

Kinesthetic learners learn by doing—they make sense of concepts when actively participating, experimenting, or practicing hands-on tasks.

Even though these learners make up only about 5% of the population, including hands-on components helps everyone learn better because it encourages active participation.

Include practical exercises, interactive quizzes, real-life simulations, or step-by-step projects where students must apply their freshly-learned skills.

If you’re teaching something theoretical, translate it into practical tasks—for example, transform a lecture on digital marketing into creating a real social media campaign or building a simple web page.

Here’s a good guide on how to make a quiz for students if you want to create hands-on assessments to keep your participants actively engaged.

Foster Social Learning with Group Interactions

Social learners absorb information best when collaborating, brainstorming, and interacting with others—it helps stick the info in their brain.

Try to set up community channels in Slack or Discord where students can work in groups, discuss lessons, and collaborate on assignments.

Simple activities like online discussions, group breakout rooms (Zoom does this well), or peer-review tasks encourage dialogue and cooperative learning.

A social learning setup doesn’t have to be complicated—just providing discussion prompts or asking open-ended questions can drive great engagement.

Accommodate Solitary Learners with Self-Paced Materials

Then there are solitary learners who process best independently—they prefer working alone, setting their own schedule, pace, and diving deep without distractions.

Offer self-paced elements such as recorded content, downloadable lesson templates, or prerecorded webinars so that solitary learners can interact with course materials in their own way.

Provide clear outlines or course structure—so learners know exactly what’s coming and can organize accordingly.

Avoid making group activities mandatory for every module; instead, make them optional bonuses or separate tracks for those who feel more comfortable flying solo.

(Here’s an easy resource on how to create an online course with WordPress if you’re looking to develop entirely self-paced courses.)

Challenge Logical Learners with Problem-Solving Tasks

Logical learners are the analytical minds—they love to see patterns, structure, and logical connections behind concepts.

Create content that challenges them to think critically by introducing puzzles, quizzes with reasoning problems, case studies, or scenario-based tasks.

Break complex lessons into step-by-step processes or give them real-world problems to apply their knowledge and logical skills.

For instance, in an online coding course, you can offer debugging exercises, coding puzzles, or tasks building toward more difficult project goals to keep logical thinkers engaged.

Include Naturalist Themes for Naturalist Learners

Naturalist learners are remarkably good at connecting lessons to real-world examples, environmental situations, or animals and plants.

You can cater to these learners by using relatable real-life scenarios, case studies centered around nature, or analogies that link back to the environment.

Even if you’re teaching completely non-environment-related topics like business or tech, throwing in naturalistic metaphors or parallels (think ecosystem or lifecycle analogies) helps make content click for these learners.

Try to design assignments that encourage observing real circumstances around students or reflecting on personal environmental experiences, as it will significantly boost their engagement.

Mix Strategies in Course Design

Since 50-70% of learners respond well to multiple learning styles, your best bet is a balanced mix rather than relying only on one type.

Try structuring each lesson or module to include multiple elements: a short video overview, helpful visuals, detailed written notes or summaries, an interactive component (like a quiz), and possibly audio summaries or podcasts.

The idea is giving your students lots of different ways to connect with the content—so they can pick and choose what works for them.

(Here’s a useful guide from Create A Course on how to create a curriculum for a course that covers this approach.)

Use Technology to Enhance Learning Experiences

Take advantage of learning management systems (LMS), video recording tools, and interactive software to offer learners diverse, engaging learning experiences.

Platforms like Teachable and Thinkific let you easily incorporate quizzes, assessments, multimedia content, and discussions to cater to multiple learning styles.

You might also consider using tools like Loom for creating casual screen-sharing videos or Typeform for interactive quizzes and learner surveys.

Exploring user-friendly software to create online training courses is also great for adding interactive content without any technical headaches.

Gather Feedback to Improve Course Content

No online course hits perfect right out of the gate: it takes paying attention to student feedback.

Consistently ask your learners what’s working, what’s tricky or unclear, and what they’re enjoying or wish was different.

Use anonymous surveys midway and at the end of your course to keep people comfortable sharing honest feedback.

Don’t just collect their input, but act on it—and update your materials accordingly—show students you’re invested and responsive, which helps boost great reviews and course recommendations later.

After making changes, you’ll notice better learner engagement, increased course satisfaction, and more positive feedback—plus an easier time marketing and selling online courses from your own website.

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