If you are in a career that is limiting because of the educational qualifications you have, you can make a change by taking up a distance education program. An online education program affords you the opportunity to further your educational status and increase your chances for a promotion at your job place. Some online college courses are bogus and your inability to know the fake from the good ones can land you in hot water. Be careful not to trust any online distance education offer that looks too good to be true. Online education programs that offer you an education in the shortest amount of time should also not be trusted. If you want to avoid fraud in your search for online college courses, it is not enough if it has an email address. You should make it sure that any online college that you have applied to has a physical address and a phone number that works. Bear in mind that a post office address is not an indication that an online college is reputable. Distance education is also largely referred to as distance learning or online education. It is a field of education focusing on teaching and leaning, using Internet technology, and instructional systems. For the most part it focuses on adults, but more and more the younger generation is being involved in the design that aims to provide education to students who are not physically "on site" at the college grounds. All over the world, notwithstanding the fact that it is considered obsolete in some several circles, many institutions still use radio broadcasts in distance education. In India for example, the FM Channel is still very popular and utilized by universities to broadcast educational programs. One cannot argue against its effectiveness in this wise because India remains one of the world's leading countries in technology advancements. Though distance learning has tackled a lot of problems in its long history, there is one problem that it is not going to deal with too soon. This is the issue of examination malpractices, or simply, writing tests under controlled situations. There is no simple way to guarantee that, so the schools and colleges play by ear as each year and each program comes. Online education programs are designed for people who have little time on their hands and are looking for a flexible study option. These are often patronized by full time housewives or workers with very little very time on their hands. Distance learning is a program that keeps the educational torch burning in the face of constraints or other commitments. Lots of audio and video cassettes have been utilized in the past. One daunting fact that limited them was their cost and bulk. Electronic technology has PDAs, mp3 players, etc., today that continue to proliferate online education in a way that is bigger than what used to avail through the course of the three centuries the practice has been on. Anyone can now do distance learning without breaking their backs.