Introduction

Distance education is a fairly new term. It denotes the forms of study not led by teachers present in class-rooms but supported by tutors and an organisation at a distance from the student. This brief description allows an interpretation which equates distance education with correspondence education. The reason why the term distance education has come into being is that the word correspondence is felt to be associated exclusively with the written word, whereas usually audio recordings and often radio, TV, telephone communication and other media nowadays supplement the written word in what is here called distance education. Sometimes, particularly in the USA, independent study is used as a synonym.