When does true learning come? When does true understanding come? This is of course an issue that any teacher may be faced with. But for elearning solutions, this can be an even trickier problem. I have been to so many seminars and conferences already regarding elearning. I have also seen and tested many of the elearning tools that are available for use as well as those that have not even been released in the consumer market yet since it is a part of my job. And what I have seen is a lot of systems that simply spoon feed information to the students. It tells them what to do and it tells them how. But more often than not, the why and the bigger picture to which these pieces of information belong to have been neglected. And it is definitely endemic. It actually seems to be within the nature of this electronic learning as a whole.

Why is Information Spoon-feeding Endemic in Elearning?
As the term goes, electronic learning has been created in order to create ease and speed in education and learning. Yes, teaching and learning can be separated. One is the act of being taught, and the other is the actual act of absorbing what is taught. Unfortunately as seems to be the case, elearning seems to be only concentrated on the act of teaching. By using software and computer technology, teachers and corporate trainers can get to teach their students or trainees wherever they may be or in a faster, hassle-free way. In most training cases, it eliminates the need for a teacher. But since it is mostly focused on this ease of instruction instead of ease of learning, it tends to encapsulate everything, segment things into bite sized information and glosses over the connections in between these that make up the bigger picture. Indeed, the very medium of technology and the Internet is geared towards this goal.

So How Can Elearning Solutions Avoid this?
Segmentation is almost impossible to avoid in most elearning software. But there is of course some small measures where it can be inserted. First of all, one must always add information about the context or background. This is the most important thing that can be added to elearning. This can be accomplished in various ways. It can be added to each system in the form of footnotes or something like that. Another way this can be added is through the teacher. If there is a live teacher or trainer, then he or she can be the one tasked in gluing all the information together in the end by means of an ending discussion or even with a written homework.

Another thing that must be remembered is the defining of goals and objectives. This may sound so simple but there are so many times when elearning solutions fail to take this into consideration. This is perhaps due to the fact that the goal is too simplistic or broad. One must narrow down goals into specific objectives. After all, the ability to properly narrow down goals can only be done effectively by a person who completely understands the bigger picture. This would help guide the modules and thus would make lessons easily relatable to each other, helping the student or trainee learn or understand the lessons.