Students on 12 American Indian pueblos in New Mexico soon will be able to earn a degree from New Mexico State University without ever leaving home, and tribal leaders are hopeful that this will mean a workforce better equipped to manage burgeoning tribal businesses.

NMSU's "Digital Pathways" program, a $2 million expansion of the university's distance-education offerings, is a collaboration between NMSU, the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) and the New Mexico Tribal Higher Education Commission.

For most of the pueblos, it will be the first time college courses have been offered online to their residents. Distance education centers will begin opening this fall on the Cochiti, Acoma, Laguna and Santa Domingo pueblos as well as the cluster known as the Eight Northern Pueblos, which includes Tesque, San Ildefonso, Pojoaque, Santa Clara, Nambe, Ohkay Owingeh (formerly known as San Juan), Picuris and Taos.

China has a vision of lifelong learning in which information and communication technologies -based (ICTs) distance education and electronic learning are key components.

China now has three of the world’s mega-universities, institutions in which over 100,000 students use largely distance learning methods. It hopes its strategy for promoting lifelong learning will be adopted worldwide.

A chapter in a joint publication from the Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO describes how China’s Ministry of Education is actively promoting innovative forms of distance education (DE).

Distance learning quarterly supplement in USA TODAY for millions of present and potential distance learners beginning in September 2006.

Dr. John G. Flores, CEO of The United States Distance Learning Association, today announced his organization's sponsorship of "Distance Learning Today," a quarterly supplement in USA TODAY.

"Distance learning is transforming the American educational landscape, through on-line technology, video conferencing systems, satellite delivery and other media," Flores said.

Now It's Possible for Anyone to Open a School. Gone are the days of needing a bachelor's degree in education in order to become a teacher.

Trusted Learning is the only online learning center that puts non- technical experts in charge of their own schools, courses and testing. Trusted Learning ( http://www.trustedlearning.com/ ) gives anyone with a subject to offer an opportunity to open an online school and teach it, be it technical, martial arts, juggling or magic.

According to Ava Styles, spokeswoman for Trusted Learning, "In a matter of hours, one can have an online school or training center. In as little as a week one can have a university. Trusted Learning provides the solution to easily create content and deploy, manage and track training programs that students can access instantly.

The best part, once the school is open, one can decide the student course fee and start generating revenue immediately, like any other educator does!"