Online and Distance Learning. What’s the difference between Online and Distance Learning?

What is Distance Higher Education?

Distance higher education is any learning that takes place with the instructor and student being geographically remote from each other. Distance education may occur by surface mail, videotape, interactive TV, radio, satellite, or any number of Internet technologies such as message boards, chat rooms and desktop computer conferencing. Online education delivered over the Internet is one form of distance learning.
Distance Learning History & Synonyms.

In the United States, several synonyms refer to distance learning, including: distance education, correspondence learning, elearning (electronic learning), online learning, online education, virtual learning, remote learning, external learning, CBT (computer-based training) or WBT (web-based training).

In Europe, the terms “open learning” and “open university” are more popular than the terms higher education distance learning or online learning. The United Kingdom’s Open University offered college lectures via television in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. The Open University still exists, but in 2007 it quit TV in favor of Internet broadcasting of all its courses.

Today, Americans use the terms “distance learning” and “online education” interchangeably. This is because the Internet has become the prominent way distance learning is delivered in the United States. In fact, three-fourths of all higher education distance learning courses (77 percent) are now delivered online, according to a 2007 study by the National Center for Education Statistics.