The Neuroscience of How E-Learning Blends Into Our Brain | Content Raven Blog

Roz Bahrami, blogger for BoostHQ summarizes, "There is a reason why 77 percent of American companies offer online corporate training to improve the job skills and professional development of their employees."

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It's because it works so well.

The secret, according to industry analysts, is that e-learning blends naturally into how our brains are wired to learn.

There have been a host of theories about how we absorb and incorporate learning, but none have had the impact of David Kolb's model of the learning cycle. In his 1984 book called “Experiential Learning: Experience as a Source of Learning and Development,” Kolb explains the four conditions that must be present for our brains to engage in the learning process.

They are concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. All four stages of the learning cycle are trapped by the presentation of online learning programs.

Concrete Experience:  
Concrete experience means when the learner is assigned a task or theory to learn. Kolb pointed out that we don't learn by just watching or reading or even listening. Instead, we learn  by doing.

The act of engaging in e-learning means the student has to take a more engaged role in the process of learning than if they are just sitting in a classroom setting and listening to a lecture. This triggers this first condition. The act of downloading the lesson and pulling it up on their computer screen, signing in and preparing to learn ignites the brains. 
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Source: Content Raven Blog