I've always been a huge proponent of example-based learning, and less about theory and generalized concepts.

Still, though, I think the online tech ed space has a lot of growing up to do. In time, we'll all wise up to provide better experiences for learning. Until then, for the most part, we're stuck with:

1. Google: "How to do X in Y" 2. Watch 3 different videos or read 3 different articles 3. Apply it. 4. Run into a snag. 5. Google / Stackoverflow