Program delivery in a virtual university is administered through Information and communications technology such as web pages, e-mail and other networked sources.
The defining characteristic of all forms and generations of distance education is the separation of student and teacher in time and space.
[3] It was founded in the 1960s on the belief that communications technology could bring high quality degree-level learning to people who had not had the opportunity to attend campus universities.
From these early beginnings, more ideas came forth until finally the Labour Party under the leadership of Harold Wilson formed an advisory committee to establish an Open University.
The first idea floated in the UK was to have a "teleuniversity" which would combine broadcast lectures with correspondence texts and visits to conventional universities.
The name "teleuniversity" morphed into the "University of Air" which still had the same goal of reaching the lower-income groups who did not have access to higher education.
[citation needed] In 1971 George Kasey, a media(activist)ethicist, delivered a series of lectures on "the Philosophy of Communications De-Design" under the sponsorship of Phil Jacklin PhD, professor at University of California San Jose, a member of "The (San Francisco)Bay Area Committee for Open Media and Public Access.
"[5] The lectures contained the theoretical outlines for use of telecommunications and media for de-schooling and de-design of mainstream education and an alternative Virtual Free University system.
[citation needed] In 1995 by John Tiffin and Lalita Rajasingham in their book "In Search Of the Virtual Class: Education in an Information Society" (London and New York, Routledge).
[6] Providing access to higher education for all students, especially adult learners, is made easier by the fact that most virtual universities have no entry requirements for their undergraduate courses.
In most cases, only a personal computer and an Internet connection are needed that traditionally required physical presence of students in the classroom.
Some learners do not mind this kind of solo learning, but others find it a major stumbling block to the successful completion of courses.
Because of the potential difficulty of maintaining the schedule needed to be successful when learning online, some virtual universities apply the same type of time management as traditional schools.
Afterwards, students get a homework assignment; for example, they have to solve an exercise, elaborate on some problem, discuss a case study, or take a test.
That is, students meet a comparable level of academic learning outcomes and are evaluated through programs constructed according to standard university-level criteria.