One important point is to help teachers organize their pedagogical perspective. Some institutes for Higher education are devoted to this mission (training, counseling, funding, development, etc.).
More recent approaches focus on dialogue, interaction and collaborative activities - courses still contain content but it is of secondary importance or is generated by the students. An open source course management system that makes this approach easier is Moodle. This advocates Social-Constructivism as a pedagogical perspective, whereby learners construct their knowledge through discussions, thereby enhancing their thinking skills.
Four main pedagogical perspectives that are often used when developing e-learning are:
Cognitive perspective - which focuses on the cognitive processes involved in learning as well as how the brain works.
Emotional perspective - which focuses on the emotional aspects of learning, like motivation, engagement, fun etc
Behavioral perspective - which focuses on the skills and behavioral outcomes of the learning process. Role-playing and application to on-the-job settings.
Social perspective - which focuses on the social aspects which can stimulate learning. Interaction with other people, collaborative discovery and the importance of peer support as well as pressure.