Introduction:
Canada has a long and established tradition in distance education — arising from the need to provide access to education across the vast expanses of this country. Now, after decades of development involving the educational uses of radio, television, teleconferencing, and computers, Canada has become a world leader in this area. Distance education has become a primary delivery system for education and training within Canada, as well as the world beyond. The explosive growth of information and communication technologies (ICT) has combined perfectly to strengthen and diversify options for distance education even further.

Whether known as distance education, distance learning, telelearning, distributed education, or e-learning, all combine to provide a wide variety of programs — school, academic upgrading, adult literacy, skills development, technical and professional training, postsecondary credit courses, and special interests — using a wide variety of technologies.

Resources for Distance Education :

• Distance Education Opportunities at Canadian Universities (DistanceEdCanada.ca)
  Database of university courses and programs of study available at several Canadian universities — particpants in this co-operative Web site by the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education (CAUCE) and the Ontario Council for University Lifelong Learning (OCULL).

• Office of Learning Technologies (Human Resources Development Canada)
  Web site serves as major resource of research and information supporting the innovative uses of technologies for lifelong learning — including databases of funded organizations and projects; materials for developers, instructors and learners; publications; descriptions of new initiatives; and lists of contacts and organizations.

• Canadian Virtual University Programs (CVU)
  Provides access to database — by subject, program level, and institution — of university level programs, from 7 Canadian universities, offering complete university degrees or certificates on-line and through distance education.

• DistanceEdCanada.ca
  Web site providing access to a searchable database of distance education courses and programs at over 30 Canadian universities — a joint project of the Canadian Association for University Continuing Education (CAUCE) and the Ontario Council for University Lifelong Learning (OCULL).

• Resources in Distance Education - RIDE (Athabasca University)
  Menu of searchable database of Internet resources on distance education at the postsecondary level - including topics such as theory and practice, educational technology resources, distance education issues and organizations, and WWW design for distance education.

• UniversityOnline.ca (COHERE — Consortium for Online Higher Education and Research)
  Alliance of Canadian universities providing university level programs and courses of study online.

• Canada's Campus Connection (Canada's SchoolNet, Industry Canada)
  Promotes the on-line courses of Canada's universities and colleges to government and private sector employees seeking skills development or upgrading.  

• Collaborative Distance Delivery Sites (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology)
  Map providing hyperlinks to institutions and organizations across Canada collaborating to deliver distance education courses.
  
  (In French Only)
• Le Répertoire de l'enseignement à distance en français (Réseau d'enseignement francophone à distance du Canada — REFAD, and Réseau INTERACTION Network, Inc.)
  A searchable database of all French K-12, postsecondary, and other courses offered via distance education by institutions throughout Canada.

• Canadian Association for Distance Education (CADE)
  National association of professionals committed to excellence in the provision of distance education in Canada.

• Athabasca University
  Canada's open university — offering over 500 distance or on-line education courses at the postsecondary level, leading to undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as diplomas and certificates.

• Association for Media & Technology Education in Canada (AMTEC)
  National organization of educational media and technology professionals, concerned with the improvement of education and public welfare through the use of educational media and technology.

• Canadian Content On-Line: SchoolNet Multimedia Learnware and Public Access Applications Program (Industry Canada, SchoolNet)
  Description and contact information for federal government initiative that provides matching fund grants to small and medium-sized commercial enterprises developing on-line learnware and public access applications — to strengthen and improve access to learning opportunities for Canadians.

• eduSource Canada (Netera Alliance)
  Developmental project to create a testbed of linked and interoperable online resource databases across Canada, and to provide leadership in the development of associated tools, systems, protocols, and practices to support such an infrastructure.