E-Learning's Impact on Design

In Chapter 15 of Lee & Owens, two views are presented as to how design e-learning: objectivism and constructivism. Objectivism is traditional, one path on which learning will take place, and usually knowledge is provided by an expert on that particular subject; however, constructivism is an approach where trial and error are allowed, and learners gain knowledge through discovery. When designing e-learning, one must think about the material available on the web, and come up with ideas to motivate learners to go find that information. The traditional subject matter expert does not fit here, as traditional as it may sound, SME's tend to know everything about a subject and are comfortable with it, possibly leading to overlooking information; however, with the constructivist idea, a learner could take more responsibility for their own learning and acquire any information left out by an SME.