ABSTRACT
Traditional (pre-Internet/Web-based) distance education practice was built around one major deficit: Responsive interaction at a distance was technically not feasible at the time. By “responsive,” we mean a turn-around time of messages short enough to justify speaking about dialog or discussion, rather than of receiving feedback to an assignment.*
How much the whole structure of distance education was developed around this deficit can be seen by analyzing three critical aspects: (1) instructional design, (2) systems, and (3) cost.
