Modern distance education is a new educational model with the development of modern information technology, and it is the main means to build people's lifelong learning system in the era of knowledge economy. Distance education refers to a form of education in which students and teachers, students and educational institutions mainly use multimedia means for systematic teaching and communication. Compared with traditional face-to-face education, distance education has the following remarkable characteristics: during the whole learning period, teachers and students can communicate in different places; Educational institutions or organizations exert influence on students' learning through learning materials and support services; Use various media technologies to contact teachers and students and carry the course content; Provide two-way communication; During the whole study period, students mainly study as individuals, and only meet when necessary 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; Let more abundant teaching resources be available for the educated to choose; The teaching form has changed from teaching to learning. Using computer network and multimedia technology to realize the optimal allocation and comprehensive utilization of resources is an inevitable trend of the development of modern distance education.