• Independent study of course materials and resources—the courseware that makes up the physical, mediated content of the course
• Interaction with other course participants (tutors, instructors, other learners, resource people).

Interaction in distance education has traditionally taken place at periodic face-to-face tutorials in local study centers or during longer contact sessions or residential schools. But an increasingly varied range of technologies for interaction at a distance are now available that can complement or even substitute for face-to-face interaction. In some cases the same technology—such as videoconferencing, audiographic conferencing, or the Web—might be used to both support interactions and transmit content, but in most cases different technologies are used for these purposes.

The communications technologies used to support interaction in distance education can be divided into two broad categories:

• Asynchronous (or deferred-time) technologies, which do not require participants to be present simultaneously. Examples include postal correspondence, electronic mail, and computer conferencing.
• Synchronous (or real-time) technologies, which require participants to interact at the same time, generally prearranged. These technologies include telephony, audioconferencing, audiographic conferencing, videoconferencing, and multi-user object-oriented environments (MOOs).

Recently distance education systems have begun to use technologies that combine asynchronous and synchronous communication with computer-based courseware, such as multimedia desktop conferencing and integrated Web environments.

• Postal correspondence
  
• Electronic mail
  
• Computer conferencing
  
• Multi-user object-oriented environments (MOOs)
  
• Audioconferencing
  
• Audiographic conferencing
  
• Videoconferencing
  
• Desktop multimedia conferencing
  
• Integrated Web environments

More resources:

横山節雄, 1999, "教育演習研究会におけるTV会議システム利用の試み", 電子情報信学會,東京学芸大学, pp.9-14
Takashi Kuroiwa, Mitsuko Kirigaya, Takahiro Gotoh, Naoto Nakamura and Setsuo Yokoyama 1996, "A trial of Using TV Conference System for Instruction Reviewing on Teaching Practice, Technical Report of IEICE, ET96-88, pp.9-14

中村直人、橫山節雄，1999，"教育実習におけるネットワーク活用試み", 東京學藝大學附屬學校，研究紀要，第26集。

Hideaki Kuzuoka, Gen Ishimoda, Yushi Nishimura, Kimio Kondo and Ryutaro Suzuki 1995, "GestureCam System: Camera Robot Mediated Remote Education," Bulletin of the National Institute of Multimedia Education, No. 12, pp. 165-173

島宗理,中村知靖,水野圭郎, 1997 “個別化教授法の考え方を活かしたパソコン通信による遠隔教育の実践と評価” 放送教育開発センター紀要，15，29-40. 共著