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Conceptual Origins∗1Tian BelawatiINTRODUCTIONThis chapter describes the conceptual development of distanceeducation as an alternative method of education. It emphasisesthe importance of interaction in DE, and the impact of informationand communication technologies in eliminating educationalbarriers and achieving the idealistic concept of open and distancelearning.EVOLUTION OF THE ODL CONCEPTModern distance education (DE) is said to have begun in 1963(Perraton, 2007). In that year, the National Extension Institutewas established in the United Kingdom, as a model for an openuniversity. The methodology of DE, more recently known asdistance learning, has given rise to the principle that educationshould and can be open to all. Open education, or open learning,is a vision of an educational system accessible to every individualwith minimal restrictions. This philosophy stresses the flexibilityof the system to eliminate problems caused by barriers of,for example, age, geographical location, time constraints andeconomic situation (Bates, 1995). Open and distance learning (ODL)is therefore a system which combines the methodology of DEwith the concepts of open learning and flexible learning. ODL is,of course, a very idealistic concept which in reality is difficult toimplement. DE specialists believe strongly, however, that manyODL principles can be fulfilled better by DE methods than byconventional face-to-face (f2f) educational approaches.∗ The chapter is based on the author’s article in Open and Distance Education publishedby Universitas Terbuka (2007).