Distance has little meaning in this context because the learning activities might take place in an adjacent room, in homes and workplaces, or at many widely dispersed sites throughout the state, nation, and the world. Some of the costs associated with personal displacement, career disruption, and other costs associated with attendance at a university are avoided. On-line education is available at any hour of the day or night, seven days a week. Students can communicate with one another to promote collaborative learning. Students anywhere in the world can be part of a single class.
Faculty can be anywhere in the world and still team-teach a class.
The technology is inherently cheaper than telephone or video conferencing for provide communications. Television will not be the dominant delivery mode, although it may be utilized as necessary and appropriate. The main task for the teams will be to encourage and lead learning conversations among the students. They will pose questions, facilitate communication. and assess outcomes. The primary vehicle is on-line education designed to permit distributed collaboration.