About

The United States Distance Learning Association was the first nonprofit distance learning association in the United States to support distance learning research, development and praxis across the complete arena of education, training and communications.

In 1987, the USDLA was founded on the premise of creating a powerful alliance to meet the burgeoning education and training needs of learning communities via new concepts of the fusion of communication technologies with learning in broad multidiscipline applications.

An elected President, an Executive Committee, and a governing board now govern the USDLA with Dr. Reggie Smith III as the Executive Director of the Association.

The learning communities that the USDLA addresses are: pre K-12, higher education, continuing education, corporate training, military and government training, home schooling, and telehealth. In addition the USDLA is also focused on national and international technology based distance learning.

USDLA through its mission of … supporting the development and application of distance learning … focuses on all legislation impacting the distance learning community and its constituencies.

Goals

• Leadership: To provide national leadership in the field of distance learning
• Advocate: To advocate and promote the use of distance learning
• Information: To provide current information on distance learning
• Policy: To represent the distance learning community before government policy and regulatory bodies
• Association of Associations: To serve and support the state, consortium and individual organizations that belong to the USDLA
• Recognition: To provide annual recognition and awards of outstanding achievements in distance learning
• Partnerships: To serve as a catalyst for the formation of partnerships among education, business, healthcare, government, and non-governmental organizations
• International: To achieve a global leadership role through liaisons with international organizations
• Access and Equity: To promote equity and access to lifelong learning through distance learning
• Diversity: To promote diversity in our organization and its programs