Every system of education has the primary purpose of imparting knowledge. Which means education begins with the principles of learning and how students learn, the implications of which needs to be thoroughly understood by educators before developing learning material.

The importance of this fact is heightened in the case of online learning which involves separation of the instructor and student. In designing practical online learning, the emphasis needs to be on established and effective theories. Rather than the medium of delivery, the quality of learning is determined mainly by the course design in terms of effectiveness.

No single school of thought forms the basis for designing the online learning methods and it takes a number of different theories into consideration. Therefore the recommendation is for a combination of various different disciplines of learning theory to develop the learning materials. Based on a number of different approaches, the developer needs to pick the most suitable strategy that will prove effective in achieving the desired objectives. The strategies chosen should therefore fulfil a number of criteria including motivation, interaction, feedback, contextual learning and constant support throughout the process. Online degrees info reports:

The goal of any instructional system is to promote learning. Therefore, before any learning materials are developed, educators must, tacitly or explicitly, know the principles of learning and how students learn. This is especially true for online learning, where the instructor and the learner are separated. The development of effective online learning materials should be based on proven and sound learning theories. As we discussed above, the delivery medium is not the determining factor in the quality of learning; rather, the design of the course determines the effectiveness of the learning (Rovai, 2002).