While interactive cancer communication systems
(ICCSs) have been found to improve cancer patients’
ability to find the information they want, [1]
research often fails to specify ‘how’ people actually
learn in these settings. A common, but incomplete,
understanding of online health education for cancer
patients is that people are passive receivers of
information or ‘vessels into which knowledge is
poured’ [2]. This assumption encourages views of
knowledge acquisition that undervalue active learning
and undervalue the role of communication
with others or reciprocal interactions with educational
tools that can be shaped to yield contextually
appropriate information. Importantly, evidence
demonstrates that learners do poorly in transferring
newly learned skills and knowledge to situations
that are different from the learning context. The act
of learning involves gaining understanding, and context
is valuable for enhancing understanding as
‘context gives meaning to learning’ [2].
Educational theories have broadly focused on
two views of learning: education as a transmission
process and education as a constructivist process.