Distance higher education started out as a way for older, non-traditional students with access issues to receive instruction.

But, beginning in the late 1990s, younger students—call them the “Instant Education Generation”—unexpectedly began embracing online university learning.

Distance college education is booming, with no signs of slowing down.

According to the Sloan Foundation’s 2009 report, Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States, 2009, online distance course registrations at colleges have continued to grow much faster than residential or campus enrollments — up 17 percent from 2007 to 2008 alone.

Today's distance learners, using computers and high-speed transmission lines to virtually connect with professors and other students from around the world, owe a debt of gratitude to the farmers of the past.

That's because the development of distance higher education came about as a way to give rural learners better access to higher education.

That's right - distance learning has a long history. In fact, college level distance education in the USA is more than 100 years old.  What's new about distance learning is not the idea, but the type of student it serves and the number and type of higher education institutions that are using it to reach new types of students.