Generally speaking, the distance education in China began after the founding of New China, and RTVU launched the distance on-demand education. From the initial beneficiaries and receiving equipment, it is mainly higher education institutions that implement modern media technologies such as broadcasting, television and computer networks.

According to the continuous upgrading of educational equipment and education level, it has mainly experienced the following generations:

I. (Single information dissemination stage)

In the broadcasting era, students learn by radio.

B, in the TV era, students learn by receiving TV videos.

Two. (two-way interaction)

After the emergence of the Internet, distance education can carry out two-way real-time video communication, similar to remote video conference.

As for the specific division into several generations, there are also special people studying it now, but there is no clear definition.