Blended learning – combining face-to-face sessions with online work and forums – is one of the fastest-growing trends in education.

On picture: Melanie Liley has graduated with a degree in business studies after five years of juggling studies with a full-time job. Photograph: Martin Godwin.

Construction of a new Regional Campuses and Distance Education building on Utah State University’s Logan campus is scheduled to start early spring.

The new building will house RCDE offices and state-of-the-art distance education classrooms. A formal groundbreaking is planned for May 2011. The estimated completion is summer 2012. The building will be located at 700 north, between the Lillywhite and Industrial Science buildings.

RAWALPINDI: For the first time in Pakistan, an interactive surgery was broadcast over the internet to help educate surgeons and surgical students from various medical colleges and hospitals across the country.

Jefferson, Brandon, Evansville and Osakis high schools will share in a $333,008 federal grant to upgrade interactive video technology equipment used in Distance Learning.

During a news conference at Osakis High School last Thursday, Colleen Landkamer, state director of USDA Rural Development, awarded a Distance Learning grant to 10 area school districts – they’re all part of a group called Central Minnesota Educational Telecommunications System (CMETS).

Advances in technology are helping expand and improve the quality of distance education in Iowa.

Today, the virtual distance education classroom includes automatic voice- and motion-activated 360-degree or double-mount video cameras, and software that presents visual, audio, slideshow presentations, real-time instructor notes and personal space for student notes on the student's desktop computer screen.