Distance education, Not different education

One sign that distance education is growing in importance is the increasing number of professional associations that are exploring ways to improve service to their members by offering events and education at a distance. Simonson relates that he was interviewed by one large biomedical organization who recently hired a consulting and marketing firm to interview distance educators to determine how they could "get into the distance learning game." An interesting aspect of the interview was the series of questions that dealt with profits, making money, and up-front expenditures for program design.