Online learning, also known as e-learning and distributed learning, has become wide-spread as a corollary to the introduction of the World Wide Web; although both distance and networked learning, variants of distributed learning, have their antecedents. In the Australian milieu, for many students living in outback settings, the use of radio communications was the means for facilitating distance education; and, the use of campus networks for disseminating course materials, ongoing since the 1980s, represent some of the salient iterations distributed learning has taken. Full integration of the Internet platform in households and workplaces has allowed distributed learning to evolve in reach, interactivity, openness, capacity, and, with the availability of entirely online degrees, expanded opportunities for students now exist.