Evaluating Distance Education in an Era of Internationalization

In their UNESCO report, Altbach, Reisberg, and Rumbley (2009) observe that distance education has emerged “as an extremely important option for higher education expansion and delivery in many quarters” (p. 123) and ascribe the new importance of distance education to “rapid and groundbreaking” (p. 123) advancements in information and communications technologies. Similarly, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES; 2011) notes that universities in the United States and overseas are leveraging advanced technologies to put education within the reach of many more individuals around the world.