Three Epistemological Foundations for e-Learning Models

Research on epistemological foundations is fruitful to understand the different e-learning models and not just to describe them. We develop here the idea that education is fundamentally a process of Communication. And then we can find the three major epistemological perspectives: instrumental perspective (where education is primarily a Transmission), relational perspective (where education is primarily a Exchange) and socio-constructivist perspective (where education is primarily a negotiation of Meaning). In these three perspectives the different e-learning models are then discussed: "just in time" model, "self-service" model and "industrial reuse" model.