Massachusetts, United States

The United States Distance Learning Association was the first nonprofit distance learning association in the United States to support distance learning research, development and praxis across the complete arena of education, training and communications.

In 1987, the USDLA was founded on the premise of creating a powerful alliance to meet the burgeoning education and training needs of learning communities via new concepts of the fusion of communication technologies with learning in broad multi-discipline applications.

An elected president, an Executive Committee, and a governing board now govern USDLA with Dr. Reggie Smith III as the Executive Director of the Association.

The learning communities that USDLA addresses are: pre K-12, higher education, continuing education, corporate training, military and government training, home schooling and telehealth. In addition USDLA is also focused on national and international technology based distance learning.

USDLA through its mission of …supporting the development and application of distance learning… focuses on all legislation impacting the distance learning community and its varied constituencies.

The United States Distance Learning Association hosts several yearly events including our National Conference and National Distance Learning Week.

Every other year we also host the International Forum for Women in E-Learning (IFWE). Our community of members, conference attendees and sponsors have helped to make these the “go-to” events within the distance and digital learning community by providing leading-edge session topics, live technology demonstrations and highly interactive participation. Conference attendees quickly understand why our events are so highly rated by past participants – intimate settings with like-minded professionals sharing best-practice topics that can be immediately applied to their daily routines. While distance learning has provided countless benefits for the teaching community over the years, our physical gatherings are truly special with a tangible sense of family enjoyed by all.

When it comes to virtual events, our NDLW program can be enjoyed by all regardless of travel constraints as it is held completely on-line. We offer Virtual Webinars on hot topics ranging from game-based teaching to ADA compliance and everything in between. 

The United States Distance Learning Association, the nation’s premier distance learning association since 1987 presents its International Distance Learning Awards Program, the premier awards for the distance learning industry.

These prestigious awards are presented annually to organizations and individuals, and recognize seven categories of excellence:

21st Century Distance Learning Award

Outstanding Leadership Award

Innovation Award

Excellence in Teaching/Training Award

Impact Award

Student Achievement Award

Quality Research Paper Award