What is Distance Education?

Distance education is an evolving form of educational instruction that teaches students who are not physically with the instructor. Distance education the similar to traditional education, but there are different advantages and disadvantages involved.

Traditional schooling involves students traveling to the educational institution and being instructed in person. In contrast, distance education is a form of schooling that allows the student to learn from home or outside of the traditional educational institution by means of communicating through mail or Internet.

Distance education has become popular these past few decades because of the practicality of the program due to changes in technology. With the increase of computer and Internet usage by the average person, distance learning has made higher-education available to anyone with basic computer skills.

The program has its strengths and weaknesses and the institutions are continually brainstorming to make their programs better. Distance education gives you an advantage by allowing you to study on your own time, wherever you want and how you want to study. For some students this is a benefit. However, for those who need more one-on-one instruction and hands-on learning, this method of education may not be best.