Distance education or distance learning is a program where the student need not be present on the site to receive the education. There are various modes by wich the coursework reaches the student. It is very useful for students who are not able to take the degree due to their career or distance or so on. As the technology advance the modes of distance deucation also keeps on changing. In the begining regular mail was the mode by which course work was communicated to the student. Then it went on to internet based or online learning, telecourse learning either through radio or television. To add more are the cd rom where the cd works as the teacher imparting education to the student. Now to mention mobile learning and pocket pcs are into being where the student accesses the course work through mobile device or through the wireless server.

AS the postal service developed in the 19th century the correspondence schools came up providing education to students all over the country. Computer and internet made the process efficient and faster. the oldest distance education university is the university of South Africa which has its genesis in 1946. There are lots of private and government institutions offering online programmes to under graduated to post graduates.

Be it however far, the student gains the course work even through audio video conferencing, e-learning or through online training. NNow a days the concept of virtual university has come up too which uses the internet to create a imaginary university enviroment where the students, faculty and staff share their information with each other.

Full time or part-time study is possible, but most students choose part-time study. Research study is possible as well. Distance education is offered at all levels, but is most frequently an option for university-level studies. A form of educational program which is similar to this but which requires some amount of presence during the year is a low-residency program.

Distance programs are also called correspondence courses as once it was through regular mail, but now it has been replaced by distance education.

Untill recently there was only 2 types of MBA programs heard, the full time and the part time. The part time were the evening classes for those who attended classes after their work.but now distance learning and e-learning mba programs are in incresing demand. The reputation of online MBA programs is being tarnished somewhat by private, for-profit institutions that offer "no-residence" undergraduate and graduate degrees in business and a number of other fields. For profit the schools allow open system where unqualified or student who dont satisfy the terms of an admission to a mba degree are given admission. AS the MBA is much sought after by people for an advancement in their career, online mba programs also help them a lot for pursuing their career along with studies.