In today's Digital Age, learning is no longer confined within the four walls of a classroom. Nor is the instructor, with textbook in hand, the sole resource in the educational experience. Information resources are all around us, often separated from the learner by time and space. Distance education is a system for connecting learners with these distributed learning resources.

Research has produced many definitions of distance education. One that was developed here at the University of Wisconsin, an institution that has a rich history in this area, says it quite simply and serves us well:

Distance education is a planned teaching/learning experience that uses a wide spectrum of technologies to reach learners at a distance and is designed to encourage learner interaction and certification of learning.

Distance education is becoming widely recognized as the key to meeting the challenge of delivering more training to more people on more subjects with higher impact and effectiveness, in a much more cost effective way. The decision to implement distance education can be a challenging and powerful one.