1, open. This is the most basic feature of distance education. Conventional school education is closed, which shows that educational resources are closed in the campus, the threshold of education is raised, and those who receive education are always a few elites in society. Distance education is open to the public. For learners, the threshold of education is lowered, the opportunities for receiving education are greatly increased, and educational information resources are shared. Distance education is born in response to the educational needs of the public. The fundamental purpose of distance education is to provide educational opportunities for all those who are willing.
2. Extensibility. This is the functional feature of distance education. Regular school education gathers learners in a specific campus from all directions, and educators carry out educational activities for them under certain institutional arrangements. This is a form of education in which educational resources and functions are contracted and concentrated. On the contrary, distance education transmits educational information to learners in all directions, and transmits educational information to the outside with the help of various media technologies, which is actually to spread educational resources and educational functions to the outside. It is through this diffusion that distance education extends its educational function to the whole society. This extension is in line with the concept of lifelong learning in modern education.
3. flexibility. Judging from the situation in various countries, distance education is generally oriented to adults and undertakes the work of on-the-job education and adult education. Therefore, distance education has developed rapidly in the fields of higher education and adult education. In this way, distance education is more flexible and diverse than conventional school education in terms of curriculum, student status management and education management, and fully adapts to the characteristics of adult learners.
4. Intermediary means. Compared with conventional school education, distance education is based on media technology and various educational information resources, and only by means of information tools can distance education activities be formed. Therefore, the registration, teaching activities, homework and submission, evaluation, information exchange and feedback of distance education can not be separated from the intermediary role of relevant media. Although regular school education also needs media technology, it is not as highly dependent on media tools and means of communication as distance education. Without the intermediary role of the media, distance education will be difficult to carry out.
5. Manageability. Although distance education is an open, extensible and flexible educational form, it is still an educational activity with goals, management, evaluation, feedback and adjustment under a certain system. The openness, expansibility and flexibility of distance education do not mean randomness and blindness, but it still regulates the operation of educational activities in a unique way and system. We can't understand the information receiving methods of mass communication, such as clicking on web pages and changing TV channels at will, as distance education. This kind of behavior is not distance education, but personalized "learning" in a broad sense.