Distance Education is the offering of educational programs designed to facilitate a learning strategy which does not depend on day-to-day contact teaching but makes best use of the potential of the students to study on their own. It provides interactive study material and decentralized learning facilities where students can seek academic and other forms of educational assistance when they need it (Daniels, 1996)

Republic Act 10650 or the Open Distance Learning Act (Open Distance Learning Act, 2014)  defines it as “a mode of learning in which students and teachers are physically separated from each other. It is a student-centered, guided independent study, making use of well-studied teaching and learning pedagogies to deliver well-designed learning materials in various media.”

WVSU-DE which was formerly known as “University Distance Education Program” was established in 2002 as the then Office of Distance Education by virtue of Board of Regents (BOR) Resolution No. 118, s. 2002.  It gets technical support from the Management Information System (MIS) of the University and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Center for Educational Innovation and Technology (SEAMEO-Innotech, Philippines) for the operationalization of its online learning portal. It is fully functional for interactive classes – that is, online facilitators and students meet in prescheduled synchronous sessions, and students are provided asynchronous tasks which they can accomplish on their convenient time.