They are frequently working adults who must balance work and family responsibilities with their educational goals. Remediation and test prep learners are interested in learning as a prerequisite for an examination or enrollment in another program. Complicating these issues of goals and learner segments even further is the tendency to see distance education as a technology issue. Certainly the advent of new technologies has enabled institutions to think quite differently about distance education. If we are clear about the problem we are trying to solve and who distance education is for, we will be able to make better decisions.
Distance education is fundamentally an education issue.
Viewed in this light, it offers students and faculty an alternative to our still-rich residential tradition. This isn't a very long review, or specific. It is short, clear, and packed with interesting reading. Critic WW Outstanding article. This is a brief, well focused, and clearly written essay.