The term "distance learning" is used to describe any type of instruction that takes place outside of a classroom or training facility. It's most commonly applied to Internet-based education, but it can also include teleconferencing, audio and mail correspondence courses.
Students of all ages and circumstances now participate in distance learning, from pre-kindergarten to graduate school, along with workers in the corporate world, government, the military and medicine.
Students who attend traditional pre-K through 12th-grade schools benefit from supplemental online courses and "field trips," according to the US Distance Learning Association (USDLA). A boon to rural and city schools alike, distance learning enables students to take advantage of enrichment classes and teachers to attend virtual in-service seminars and training. Some students at traditional schools choose to take all of their classes at home, on computers supplied by the school district, and home-schoolers now have a wealth of instructional materials available to them online.
Many traditional 2- and 4-year colleges now offer online classes, certificates and degree programs that are equivalent to their on-campus offerings. Students can also choose virtual classes at vocational and technical schools, or enroll in specialty schools such as those that teach only medical transcription and billing or web design and development.
Corporations increasingly are using technology "both internally and externally, for all aspects of training," according to the USDLA. Businesses "save millions of dollars each year using distance learning to train employees more effectively and more efficiently than with conventional methods."
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 65 percent of the 4,200 degree-granting 2- and 4-year colleges in the United States offered some type of distance learning in the 2006 to 2007 academic year. Of those 4,200 colleges, 65 percent had courses for which students earned credits, and 23 percent had non-credit courses.
In November, 2003 NCES surveyed 2,158 public school districts in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to learn how many students were "regularly enrolled" in distance education classes. The central region of the United States, from Ohio and Missouri in the East to the Dakotas and Kansas in mid-country, had the highest number of enrolled students with 42 percent. The northeast had the lowest number of students taking distance learning classes, 12 percent. The southeast region reported 14 percent, and the west region 28 percent of students enrolled in distance learning classes.