The idea, according to its advocates, is that you can learn almost anything, sitting at home in front of your computer, given the right kind of learning package. Interactivity is one. Learning is not a passive activity. One of the bad lessons from bad schooling is that learning is something teachers do to you, not something you do for yourself. The truth is we all learn, all the time, by imitating, and by doing.
Few people have difficulty mastering quite complex skills, such as learning to drive.
If you start early enough, you can even learn a language from scratch, as most babies do, merely by imitating adults. So building interactivity into e-learning looks a winner. Successful e-learning has to engage the learner in the learning process. And e-learning can be much more powerful than traditional distance learning. What would otherwise have to stay local can become national or even international by this means.