Learning is a complex psychological activity

Learning is activity of an individual which results in acquisition of certain knowledge, skills and habits. Results of learning can be related to development of abilities in cognitive, affective and psycho-motor field.

Learning is a broader term than education or teaching. Didactics, as a branch of pedagogy, deals with organized and purposeful learning processes.

A significant part of an individual's learning, which is not a part of didactics, is accidental, unconscious, not purposeful and unorganized. However, accidental or unconscious learning processes also contribute to an individual's knowledge and education. 

By learning we acquire certain knowledge, but also attitudes and values. Attitudes are acquired tendencies to react in a certain way to someone or something.  Values are deep convictions which direct our behaviour, opinions and how we perceive other individuals according to some basic characteristics of their environment. Values are related to material and spiritual area of an individual's social life, their natural environment, ethics, morals etc. For example a participant can have certain attitudes toward learning, but they can also value education as a more or less important factor of their own personal development.

Levels of knowledge that an individual acquired through the learning process manifest in several basic ways, depending on the level of the acquired knowledge and the possibility to use it in practice:
- recognition is the possibility to identify facts and phenomena that an individual has encountered before (e.g. recognizing the correct answers in a multiple choice question);
- recollection and reproduction are related to the possibility to independently recollect and reproduce (out loud, in writing or otherwise) some previously acquired content (e.g. historical facts);
- problem solving in the narrow field of specific previously acquired knowledge (e.g. mathematical calculations, chemical analyses, development of computer programs etc.);
- managing and adapting to new situations is related to problem definition in new situations, finding a way to solve problems, creative approach and innovation in application of previously acquired knowledge, as well as to adapting of the environment to your needs and goals while taking into consideration social, ethical, ecological and other values.

Behaviourist approach to learning process was developed in the first half of the 20th century. According to behaviourism, learning is related to creating associations between certain stimuli and the reaction of the organism. Behaviourism showed the important role of reward in the learning process. If reactions to certain stimuli are rewarded, these reactions appear more often.  If there is no reward for a certain reaction, they will be extinguished or become more and more rare.

Cognitive approach to learning also started in the first half of the 20th century and is mostly based on theoretical principles about the development of cognitive schemes or thinking structures which present certain inner or outer processes. Learning is related to acquiring new schemes and adaptation of the old ones to new needs. Assimilation is a process in which experience is turned into inner conceptions and new schemes which are so shaped to fit in with the existing knowledge. Accommodation is a process of adaptation and changing the existing schemes in order to be able to accept new experience. For effective teaching by using cognitive theories it is important, among other things, to determine beforehand the type and the level of development of the schemes the students already possess and shape the process and the content in such way that these schemes keep developing, changing, and being supplemented. A scheme an individual possesses during their development becomes more and more rich, complex and structured. 

In addition to these approaches to learning process which are more oriented on information acquisition, learning process can also be viewed as problem solving. From the multitude of information in their environment it is more likely that the students will notice and use those which enable them to fulfil certain needs and/or solve problems which they are dealing with. The process of solving a problem has positive effect of identification and differentiating between useful and useless information, memorizing the ones necessary for the students to solve a problem, as well as development of skills through planning and memorizing the problem-solving strategy. Teaching can, therefore, be improved if it is in the form of a problem-solving activity.

Through analogy to the work of a computer learning can be seen as information processing. Memory can be divided into sensory memory, as well as long and short-term memory. Sensory memory stores information registered by different senses for a very short period (approximately 1 second). The information that has been paid attention to is then transferred to short-term or primary memory. The capacity of short-term memory is usually limited to 5-7 elements (notions, pictures etc.). The information stored in short-term memory can be consciously considered by the students, who can then plan and form their reaction. When teaching you should adapt the quantity of information to the limitations of the short-term memory and encourage activities which enhance information transition from short-term or primary memory to long-term or secondary memory. Analysis, application and/or repetition of information in short-term memory, increases the probability of their permanent storage in long-term memory. 

As one of cognitive learning theories in e-education, constructivist approach to learning is very popular. According to that approach knowledge is formed through the student activity, and learning process consists of (re)organization of schemes through which a student represents certain elements in their physical and social environment. Since students themselves gather and "construct" their knowledge, teachers should serve as no more than guidance in that process. The teacher's task is to insure the necessary information sources and other materials with the help of which students will build their knowledge through their own activity. Knowledge is gathered in social context, which makes the group and wider social context in which the student is gathering knowledge very important for the learning process. In time teachers try to make the students independent, since the students have to learn how to learn on their own. In order to apply this teaching model in practice it is important to encourage the shaping of new notions or constructs in students' minds, which can be related to previously acquired schemes and built into complex structures based on cognitive and practical experience of student activity.

Web is a good source of a great number of pedagogical theories, as well as different teaching models.

Tips & tricks: When developing a certain subject or a course in LMS, it is useful to define the specific knowledge, skills or habits which a student should acquire. In addition to that, a professor should evaluate whether information related to cognitive, affective and practical knowledge or skills is present to an adequate degree, as well as whether the development of certain attitude and values is encouraged. Furthermore, they should determine whether they want their students to gather knowledge on the level of recognition, reproduction, problem solving or creative adjustment to new conditions. Acquiring of knowledge will be enhanced by adequate award system, and by taking into consideration the already existing level of knowledge and abilities of the participants. Finally, teaching in the form of problem solving and other activities which encourage the transfer of information from short-term to long-term memory (e.g. repetition) will make the results of educational process firmer and increase the possibility of knowledge application in practice.