Distance education is one of the qualifications of adult education. It is an Internet-based teaching mode, which breaks through the boundaries of time and space, and is different from the traditional teaching mode of on-campus accommodation. Students who use this teaching mode are usually amateurs. Because you don't need to go to a specific place to attend classes, you can attend classes anytime and anywhere. Students can also learn from each other through various channels, such as TV broadcast, internet, special counseling hotline, class research club and face-to-face teaching (correspondence). Enrollment targets are not limited by age and previous academic qualifications, which provides opportunities for people who have entered the society to improve their academic qualifications.

Compared with traditional face-to-face education, distance education has several remarkable characteristics: during the whole learning period, teachers and students are quasi-permanently separated; Educational institutions or organizations exert influence on students' learning through learning materials and support services; Use various technical media to contact teachers and students and carry the course content; Provide two-way communication; During the whole study period, there will be no study group in a quasi-permanent way, and students will mainly study in their personal capacity, with necessary meetings for social and teaching purposes.

It is generally believed that distance education has experienced three generations: the first generation is correspondence education; The second generation is radio and television education; The basic feature of the third generation is to use computer network and multimedia technology to carry out teaching activities in the digital signal environment, which is called "modern distance education". The outstanding characteristics of modern distance education are: it is really not limited by space and time; The object of education is extended to the whole society; There are more abundant teaching resources for the educated to choose from; The teaching form has changed from teaching to learning.