Distance learning is not a modern phenomenon in the education system but dates back to 1728, when Caleb Phillips, a teacher in Boston, suggested that students replace Shortland's classes with weekly mailed classes.

In the early 1840s, long before the invention of the Internet, Isaac Pitman, a British educator also taught shorthand through postal correspondence.

Distance learning and education have a long history, but new technological developments and access to communication tools have increased the popularity and widespread use of distance learning.

Today, distance learning is a modern method of providing education, which is carried out by electronic means, and in the educational process, internet technologies are used instead of traditional teaching methods.

Distance learning combines such technologies as:

• distance interactive courses;
• webinars;
• forums;
• video lessons;
• Electronic material catalogs.