What is Online Learning?
Distance education is defined as institution-based formal education where the learning group is separated, and where interactive telecommunications systems are used to connect learners, resources, and instructors. (Simonson, 2009)
This definition is expanded on in the 2009 yearbook of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
By 2008 distance learning was an established part of the educational world. In U.S. higher education alone, by 2006 more than 20% of total enrollment was online. More than 3.5 million college students enrolled in at least one online course in the autumn of 2006, up from 1.6 million in 2002. In the 2005–06 school year, approximately 700,000 primary- and secondary-school students took at least one online or blended course. Higher education administrators reported in 2007 that the demand for online course work would continue to grow.
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