Today, education and training continues to be delivered through ordinary mail and fax, as well as through web sites and desktop videoconferencing. Distance learning is a plot against professors. Perhaps some truth here, depending on the administration. Some administrators may dream of eliminating pesky professors through automating education and think this is the solution. But this is more of a personality conflict rather than a problem for distance learning.
Distance learning is a fraud.
Often the dark side of distance learning is in the news when diploma mills are exposed or condemned. Then again, traditional schools make the news when they are rated as party schools. Accountability matters in any institution that offers classes and training, and students need to check out potential schools carefully. Critics of distance learning point out some very real problems, and we who are involved in distance learning, in any role, should heed them in order to address and resolve these problems. Distance learning provides a broad menu of methods and media within this educational ecosystem.