Hi Martha, Thank you for your post to the Forum. I trust this course will be valuable,provide additional insight, and perhaps, ways to enhance your distance delivery programs. As you may have noted in earlier postings, acknowledging the characteristics of your student population and their unique learning needs is the first step. To offer effective quality online courses, multiple factors need to be considered and monitored. But most importantly, a distance education strategy must be developed that aligns with the mission and vision of the institution that has the fiscal support to insure its integrity and continuation. I'm looking forward to our future Forum interactions. Dr. Robert Roehrich