The Nebraska Network 21 (NN21) Action Team on Distance Education/Outreach has studied a variety of issues related to distance education in order to better serve the people of Nebraska. Distance education has grown rapidly in Nebraska, but is clearly in its infancy. Many important issues still are being identified and are far from understood. The possibilities of distance education are yet to be fully realized. But in a state with a small, spread-out population such as ours -- perhaps in any state -- it would seem that distance education holds great promise for making many forms of education accessible to all. To further our understanding of the field of distance learning, the Action Team commissioned a series of White Papers on topics sig...