Today’s students can choose to earn their high school, associate, undergraduate, and even graduate degrees online. National Distance Learning Week (NDLW), November 9-13, 2009, promotes distance learning programs offered by schools, businesses, and government.

At the secondary school level, over 700,000 high school students are now taking one or more courses online, and nearly 40 states have established state-wide or state-lead virtual schools. Michigan became the first state in 2007 to require high school students take at least one online course for graduation. Furthermore, over 3.5 million college students are currently taking online courses and/or earning online college degrees.

NDLW is sponsored by the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to distance learning research. The learning communities that USDLA addresses are: pre K-12, higher education, continuing education, corporate training, military and government training, home schooling and telemedicine.