Small, rural school districts like the one in Avon, Illinois are utilizing a distance education program for their high school students with great success. This program involves students in one or more locations being taught by a teacher elsewhere via video and audio links.

For example, one class was taught by a professor from Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg to students at Avon and Williamsfield high schools in a virtual setting where students at both schools and the teacher could see and communicate with each other in real time. There is an initial investment to get programs like this up and running, but in the long run the benefits outweigh the startup costs for rural schools. Through distance education, high school students in rural communities can now take a number of advanced courses which enable them to complete their first year of college credit before even graduating from high school.

There are distance education university ranking systems that are designed to rank the best online universities in the rapidly growing field of distance learning. Even though the area is growing rapidly, a lack of transparency and adequate ranking systems have held it back until now. Unlike face to face education which has had a number of reputable rankings systems like the Good University Guide 2012, distance education providers have struggled to make their mark in a ranking guide that focuses on them.

Top employers have more respect today for online degrees, but there are still some "diploma mills" which detract from the reputation of legitimate online schools. Nonetheless, newly emerging distance education rankings have been designed to be objective and qualitative, in order to shed some light on the most popular online education programs. Some have created a database of accredited programs which include the most important online colleges operating on a national basis.

The University of Missouri is streamlining the structure of its distance education courses to better align them with the programs offered on campus. A reorganized system will put MU High School, online classes and supporting departments under the helm of one e-learning administrator.

The realignment began last year when administrators pulled MU Direct and the Center for Distance and Independent Study out form MU Extension and put them under direct campus control. The goal is to find the best way to integrate distance and online learning into the main campus. E-learning at the school has evolved into a complicated web of classes and programs over the years, with MU Direct offering gradual-level online coursework for career professionals and CDIS providing online courses for other students. Several academic departments also provide their own hybrid courses.