In the future, it will mean sitting in front of your computer and trying to stay awake during your professor's live lecture. Getting the Boss to Pay Admissions Tests Test Tutorials Today, it's somewhere in between. Technological advances have been worked into online education, but it's not the same as a classroom yet.
Textbooks are more important in distance learning, while lectures are less important.
Almost every university that offers online classes will sell you the books you need by mail order. Most also put portions of their libraries online for student use. This makes a good printer important, because reading lengthy academic texts on your computer screen will exhaust your eyes and brain in a hurry. Some online classes use videos of lectures that are mailed to class members, but few use videos online as a significant portion of the class because students don't always have the bandwidth to receive them. If you're a member of newsgroups, you're already familiar with threaded discussions.