Twelve of the world's open universities now enrol over 100,000 students each and over three million students between them. These mega-universities have expanded access, cut cost and improved quality. Athabasca University staff have advised several of the mega-universities and that should make you proud. The technology of distance education is the key to the future. Athabasca University is providing vital answers to that question with the Virtual Teaching and Learning Community that it calls ViTAL .
Community is the key word.
Never forget that thirty years ago distance education was called correspondence education and had low status. Study materials were poor and communication was meagre. The Open University, Athabasca University and our sister institutions have since changed all that. Together we have pushed the stone of distance education from the valley of low status up to the top of the hill of quality. But the stone could easily roll down again.