With the pace of life becoming faster distance learning is becoming the choice of more and more people these days. It seems to the priority for those whose lifestyles do not allow for regular college classes. Therefore, people taking college or postgraduate level courses form the major part of distant learners today. However, the audience of distance learners is by not limited: a student willing to get a degree or a professional seeking to expand his opportunities for advancement can benefit from it. Distance learning enables students to take course of their own choice staying at their homes. Possibility for students to tailor curriculum according to their specific needs, flexibility, and lower fee compared to classroom learning make this type of education most preferable to those having tight schedule. Another advantage is that a student is not pressed with time and can progress in learning at his/her individual pace. Advent of technologies in education allow distance learning become more responsive to learner's needs and thus become more convenient. However, learning at distance requires much more commitment from the student, for it's the student who becomes must schedule classes. The learner must be highly motivated and concentrate on the subject matter fully to achieve good results. Contrary to the general expectation, distance courses are not so easy, primarily because the learners must work on his/her own, which may have negative effects on sociability. Thus, distance learning is demanding, but it can be rewarding. Distance learning is often used in international education. It can well substitute actually going abroad for educational purposes in cases if the necessary courses are not available in the learner's home country. With the Internet throwing the classroom into the cyberspace (the so-called on-line learning, or e-learning), international education is becoming more accessible as on-line courses make it unnecessary for students to travel. All the learner needs is his/her PC connected to the Internet. Today one can learn on-line almost everything, on-line departments of some universities even offer degree programs, not speaking about professional certification. On-line education, featuring highly trained instructors and professors, provides high quality training compared to the traditional classroom system. It supports all the up-to-date teaching technologies, so the student can get access to all modern forms of education. What is missing is the transportation and lodging fees, incurred when going abroad. As one can see, distance learning has both positive and negative sides, and it's up to the student to make the decision. If you do not mind to travel, want to meet new people and see new places, or to gain in-depth knowledge of a culture, its customs and people, you will evidently prefer to travel to study abroad. If you want to concentrate on the subject staying comfortably at home, do not want to spend extra money, or have an extremely busy lifestyle, distance learning can provide all the necessary techniques for you to acquire competencies and skills necessary in a dynamically changing world today. Sources: http://www.distancelearning-guide.com http://www.node.on.ca/articles/idx/6/009/article/