Distance education is much more popular today than it ever was in the past. The Internet has allowed people from all over the world to study at home and juggle their education around their careers and families. Because of that, more people are able to get the education they always wanted. That will allow them to move forward with their lives in more ways than just their finances. Is distance learning for everyone, though, or are there only certain subsets of learners who should be involved with distance learning? Research into distance learning in general can help to answer that question. Distance education is becoming a popular alternative way for graduate students to learn and, although there are drawbacks, the literature shows many students believe that distance learning is an effective format that has great advantages for them and represents an important way to reach their educational targets. Before the Internet, there was only mail as a way to learn via distance. Correspondence courses were helpful, but they did not allow the student or the instructor to provide almost immediate information to one another - and that became problematic. According to Tomei (2006), it is very important to focus on the size of the classes where distance learning is concerned. Many students are worried about that, for obvious reasons. When one cannot see how many other students are in the class, there is no way to gauge whether the students will have enough of the instructor's attention. Theoretically, there could be no upper limit for how many students are in a distance learning class. There may be 20, 30, 50, or more - and that would put a lot of stress...

Distance learning classes need to have the same kinds of requirements for student numbers as classes that are conducted in a classroom setting (Tomei, 2006). When classes are handled that way, the instructor is able to keep up with the class properly, and each student gets the attention that he or she needs in order to be successful. Distance learning can be a wonderful way to learn and grow as a student, as a worker, and as a person, but the class size and individual attention is crucial to success (Tomei, 2006). Students who are involved with online education and distance learning must remember that the instructors are working just as hard as they are, and that proper instruction cannot usually come from teachers who are overworked or who have large class sizes that they are unable to keep up with or follow up with when there are questions from students.
Tomei (2006) is not the only researcher who is concerned about and interested in the state of distance learning today. Other researchers have begun to examine various aspects of the distance learning experience in an effort to determine what is best for students and teachers - and how things can be changed in an effort to improve the experience further. One of the ways in which distance learning can be made more viable and more interesting for graduate students is to incorporate "real life" into the work that is being done. A study by Annetta, Murray, Laird, Bohr, and Park (2008) addressed the use of video games as part of a science curriculum. The study was not about allowing…