In addition, characterising distance education as the most industrialised form of teaching and learning is also regarded as out of proportion and criticised because it is claimed that this characterisation is obsolete because for some time now we have been in a post-industrialist age (Peters, 3-4)." Peters does, however, make a good point about the lack of pedagogy on the subject of distance education and learning. There is very little I way of research and analysis on that leads to an understanding as to the progress of distance education and learning as a viable method of education. It would see that, initially, because it was perceived by educators and mainstream universities as a product of "industrialization," little effort was made in the way of pedagogy to study and analyze distance education and learning.

That failure to build a body of pedagogy around distance education and learning has probably done more to harm the potential for educators to harness the potential to what distance education and learning might have meat to educators as a group. It could have ushered in a new role and level of importance of the educator, the university professor, as both an educator, but also as an in-demand product. Educators had the opportunity to build their own base of expertise and opportunity to gain more for that expertise as independent distance educators...

There is still time to do this, and we can probably expect to see major changes in the way the U.S. education system is structured moving forward around distance education and learning.
However, the responsibility of the teachers is restricted, because chairmanship of the group revolves among group members and representatives of students, tutors and other participants in the teaching and learning, or those affected by it, are included as partners. It is no longer expected that participants in course development are specialised experts but that they are in possession of broad and multi-faceted competence. With regard to curricular work, university teachers would no longer be expected to pass on the results of their research in the form of courses but to find out exactly the learning requirements of defined groups of students and make every effort to satisfy these requirements as quickly and effectively as possible (Peters, 9)."

It remains clear, too, Peter says, that the pedagogy around distance education and learning needs to move forward in an aggressive way. Whether or not the descriptions of distance education and learning as industrialized mechanisms industrialized and post industrialized becomes a non-issue in lieu of the lack of pedagogy.