Whatever you want to label "learning at home" and however you want to define the latest buzz words for non-traditional education, you can find a program and method that suits your needs. Right now over 1.2 million people in the U.S. participate in some form of distance learning, with a projected expansion to 2.3 million in just a few years.

In looking at this rapidly expanding and viable form of education and training, there are a few basic things you need to consider and some decisions you need to make in order to create the environment that will best suit your needs. You need to know the what, the why, the benefits and the how of the various forms of distance learning.

Distance learning (correspondence courses) started in Europe in the 1800