Distance academic education, also known as network academic education, is a new form of education developed by using modern information technology such as network technology and multimedia technology. It is a network education based on modern electronic information communication technology (supplemented by face-to-face instruction, correspondence, radio and television (audio-visual) teaching). It takes learners as the main body, and students and teachers, students and educational institutions mainly use various media and interactive means to carry out systematic teaching and communication. Modern distance education is relative to traditional forms of distance education such as correspondence education, radio and television education. Network education is a new concept after modern information technology is applied to education, that is, education by using network technology and environment. In some documents issued by the Ministry of Education, modern distance education is also called network education.

Due to the different ways and means of information transmission, the development of distance academic education has gone through three stages: the first stage is correspondence education based on paper media delivered by mail, and the second stage is radio and television teaching based on radio and television, audio and video recording; The third stage is the online distance education stage through the combination of computer, multimedia and remote communication technology. With the gradual popularization of television, telephone, computer and Internet, online distance education is getting closer and closer to us. For us in big cities, it has actually come to us. According to the different learning levels, distance education can be divided into two types: undergraduate education and undergraduate education. Learning methods are mainly divided into two types: collective class and individual learning.

Distance academic education has been paid attention to by many colleges and universities from its appearance to its continuous development and perfection. Distance academic education has changed the current teaching mode and is unique in cultivating innovative talents and attaching importance to the development of students' individual independence. Teaching mode is a specific teaching structure that adapts to certain educational goals. The traditional teaching mode characterized by one-way indoctrination in China is suitable for the educational goal of one-sided emphasis on knowledge inheritance, which is not conducive to students' enthusiasm, independence and creativity. The appearance of distance education has transformed teaching from a closed knowledge system to an open knowledge system, and from teaching to self-study, which is not only reflected in the transformation of methods, but also in the transformation of two teaching methods and structural models. In terms of quantity, through distance teaching, most of the teaching time will be used for students' autonomous learning activities and research activities, and the teaching hours will be greatly reduced. In terms of quality, the acquisition of students' knowledge and the formation of reasonable intelligent structure mainly depend on students' autonomous learning and research through distance teaching.