ABSTRACT
Here, we establish the background context for the book and introduce the conceptual underpinning – the three pillars of distance education: openness, distance, and interaction, which serve as a base from which to interrogate contemporary and historical perspectives on distance education. We suggest that the excessive and reductionist emphasis on interaction in online learning promotes a dualist approach. Instead, we propose an alternative conceptualisation using John Dewey's non-dualist theory of transactionalism.
