What is it?
Distance education involves the linking of teacher(s) and student(s), through technology rather than face-to-face interaction. Distance education serves the educational needs of people who cannot come to a Penn State campus due to job, family, time, distance, economic, or other constraints.

Penn State’s first distance education courses, developed over one hundred years ago, used the U.S. mail to link students and teachers. Today, we employ various technologies, including: the Internet, CDs, DVDs, interactive video conferencing, live or on-demand streaming media, videotapes, fax, and e-mail to deliver and facilitate the interaction between learners and teachers. The tremendous technological advances in recent years in computing power, storage technology, and communication links have set the stage for marvelous advances in the quantity and quality of distance education. Penn State faculty and staff are working to bring you new and exciting learning opportunities through distance education.