The Psychology of E-learning: a Field of Study

In this article, we present our views of the psychology of E-learning as a field of study that is important, interdisciplinary, emerging, and promising. We first define E-learning as the third learning system in the history of human learning, specify two major E-learning practices in education and corporations, and indicate the importance of psychological studies of E-learning. We then point out the interdisciplinary nature of the psychology of learning and summarize the existing literature of the psychology of E-learning in cognitive, social, developmental, and school and counseling psychology. We comment on major accomplishments and limitations of the special issue, and conclude with a brief discussion of possible future research directions. After two years of thinking and working, we are delighted to present this special issue, The Psychology of E-learning: A Field of Study, which Zheng Yan served as the guest editor. In this article, we as a research group of the psychology of E-learning will present a general background of E-learning, summarize existing literature of the psychology of E-learning, discuss accomplishments and constraints of the special issue, and point out possible future research directions.