Distance learning has moved far away from the traditional correspondence course, aimed at

the individual student working alone. The global reach of the Internet makes it possible to unite geographically scattered students in a virtual classroom. Methods such as multimedia, video-conferencing and the Internet will increasingly allow students both to proceed at their own pace, and to interact with one another and their teachers.

Even without taking the technology to its limits, the idea of education as a lifelong process is catching on throughout the industrialized world. Already, working adults who pursue their studies part-time make up roughly half of students taking college courses in the United States.

However, there is debate in scholar circles about how far new technology should be used for teaching academic subjects in which personal contacts between teacher and student are still vital. Britain's Open University, for example, a world leader in distance education, has embraced information technology cautiously, believing it to be no substitute for books and the exchange of ideas at live tutorials and summer schools.

But the Open University is also moving with the tide. It has set up a "knowledge media institute" to explore ways of adopting information technology. Some teachers are concerned about this trend, arguing that the heavy investment that students are expected to make in computer and communications equipment contradicts the concept of "open" cost, of course, is and important factor in many developing countries, where few people have computers or even phones. Rather than uniting the world, the new technologies could lead to societies of information haves and have-nots.

Distance learning is different from the traditional correspondence course in that______.

A．it requires the individual student to work alone

B．it enables all the students to work at the same pace

C．it allows students to discuss with one another and their teachers

D．it enables geographically scattered students to study in the same physical classroom