"A Review of Contemporary Research on the Effectiveness of Distance Learning in Higher Education -- The report finds that the overall quality of the research is questionable and thereby renders many of the findings inconclusive. Numerous gaps in the research require more investigation and information. These gaps include the fact that the research: emphasizes student outcomes for individual courses rather than for a total academic program; does not adequately explain why the dropout rates of
distance learners are higher; does not address the quality of digital “libraries”; and does not take into account differences among students in how they learn." pdf file.