ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Distance education has become a popular and largely eff ective tool worldwide for expanding education access to potential students. Institutions that off er distance education in the United States share the same basic goals as their counterparts around the world: To extend learning opportunities to larger publics, to increase their enrollments, and to do so cost-eff ectively. Th ey also share many of the same concerns, including cost, organizational change, careful adoption of new teaching and learning technologies, and the quality of instruction and learning. Unique political, historical, and geographical features of the American educational enterprise, however, result in some notable diff erences, particularly in organizational structure and funding.
