Many people in higher education think of distance learning the same way one would a distant cousin: aware of its existence, perhaps even thinks well of them, but reluctant to pick up the phone and find out how they are doing. And like the cousin you don’t know well, the justification for your lack of interest is that distance learning is just a little bit awkward.

Distance learning is reputedly characterised by clunky online interfaces, isolation and generally conspiring to make students – and staff – miss out on so many of the things that make university life so attractive: daily interaction with people who think like we do. We imagine it to be just a depleted version of the ‘real thing’.

Read the full article at The Guardian