The Future Agenda of Distance Education: A Learning Environment Approach

Clearly, distance education has arrived. It has successfully persuaded thousands of students and their employers of its value. Blind to color and gender, it has attracted and embraced diversity and in the process created a level of credibility that has sustained both a national and even global reach. It is now totally seamless and inclusive and ranges from kindergarten to the doctoral level, including areas such as art and nursing about which many were skeptical. It has passed the tough standards of being accredited by both national and regional associations; its remaining critics are few, cranky, and generational. But it is precisely when an industry settles into and enjoys the comfort zone of success that it may need to pause and reflect as to whether all the assumptions of continuity will continue to go in its favor. Above all, it may need to contemplate the high road and identify futures that are not solely, obediently, and incrementally more of the same. Although each institution routinely engages in strategic forecasting and planning, it may be bracing to factor in the directions and trends for the field as a whole. In particular, five megatrends seem discernable. QUALITY--PERFORMANCE