Online Education

Online Courses, Online Schools, Online Training and Distance Learning Programs

What Are Distance Learning Programs

Simply put, distance learning is the delivery of education in which the instructor and students are not in the same classroom. It builds on the idea that students are learning all the time and don't have to be sitting in a classroom listening to an instructor deliver a lecture in order to learn about a particular topic.

As with traditional higher education, students can take distance learning courses for self-improvement, certification, or to earn a degree.

Distance learning programs are a type of education, typically college-level, where students work on their own at home or at the office and communicate with faculty and other students via e-mail, electronic forums, videoconferencing, chat rooms, bulletin boards, instant messaging and other forms of computer-based communication.

Most distance learning programs include a computer-based training (CBT) system and communications tools to produce a virtual classroom.

Because the Internet and World Wide Web are accessible from virtually all computer platforms, they serve as the foundation for many distance learning systems.

Online Versus Traditional Learning

If you want to earn a certificate or degree, or simply want to enhance your work skills and experience, but you find yourself unable to attend traditional courses for one reason or another, then online distance learning may be just the thing for you.

• You may be a parent who works full-time and doesn't want to give up what little time you have with your children to commute to campus and sit through a lecture.
• You may have child care issues that are preventing you from enrolling.
• You might be a disabled or retired person who finds it challenging to get to a location where traditional courses are offered.
• Or you may live in a rural area and can't bear the thought of driving a couple of hours or more just to take a class.

Online distance learning addresses all of these problems that one finds with traditional courses. It doesn't require a commute to an other location and, for the most part, you can work on courses at your convenience.