Pedagogical bases of e-learning

Abstract

In this article, the aim is to provide an overall view of the most significant characteristics of e-learning. After providing a definition of e-learning, describing its differences with traditional teaching modalities, and analyzing its most general advantages and disadvantages, emphasis is placed on the fact that the meaning of e-learning for education does not lie in its technical dimension (e.g. the platform used) but rather in the control and meaning assigned to a series of variables such as: how contents are presented, the role of the teacher and students, the synchronic and asynchronic communication tools used and their application in the teaching act, the didactic strategies used, the attention paid to organizational features, and the e-activities provided, etc. That is, all the educational acts that use the web as a medium and resource, independently of the fact that other instruments can also be used, such as video, audio conferencing, multimedia, television, etc.