ABSTRACT
Anyone who intends to put learning processes into operation in distance education in order to control, observe and evaluate them is confronted with special types of difficulties. Teachers and students are, of course, not near to each other but are at a distance. It might appear quite trivial to mention something as obvious as this, par ticularly as it is made quite clear in various languages - distance education, Ferastudium, te/eenseignement, educacion a distancia. However, we must still exam ine the problem here because important pedagogic processes are derived from it. For the better comprehension of recent concepts, some historical (and fundamen tal) ideas need first of all to be addressed because they are still having an effect today.
