Definition of Distance Education and History

             Distance education is defined as students receiving instruction in a location other than that of the faculty (Billings & Halstead, 2012).  In distance education, there is no face-to-face contact between the faculty member and the student.  All education is done remotely between different communities and/or different states (Billings & Halstead, 2012). 

            Distance education has been around for many years.  One of the earlier forms of distance learning was started in Europe and was known as correspondence (Valentine, 2002).  This form of education used the postal system to open educational opportunities to individuals who wanted to learn, but had no way to attend a conventional school (California Distance Learning Project, 2011).  As the years progressed, so did the technology used in distance education.  The invention of the educational radio in the 1920s and the advent of television in the 1940s changed the way distance education brought education to students (California Distance Learning Project, 2011).  Today, the Internet and compressed video have taken distance learning in new directions, allowing distance learning to occur in real time (Valentine, 2002).