Distance learning is usually sold on flexibility, which is the least useful thing anyone can tell you about it. Flexibility is not a feature you receive, it is a workload you absorb.
I have worked with a lot of freelancers and consultants who went back to study while still running client work, and the ones who struggled were almost never the ones with the least time. They were the ones who had never had to build their own structure before.
That is the honest case for the self-employed advantage here. Not that independent work makes you smarter, but that it forces you to practise the exact habits distance learning quietly requires.
What distance learning actually means
The federal definition is more precise than the marketing. The U.S. Department of Education, through the National Center for Education Statistics, defines distance education as instruction delivered by one or more technologies to students who are separated from the instructor, with regular and substantive interaction between student and instructor, either synchronously or asynchronously.
Two parts of that matter. The separation is obvious, but the requirement for regular and substantive interaction is what separates an accredited program from a pile of recorded videos.
If a program cannot tell you how and when you will interact with an actual instructor, that is not a scheduling detail. It is a quality signal, and usually a bad one.
How many students use distance learning
The scale is larger than most people assume. According to NCES Fast Facts on distance learning, some 9.4 million undergraduates, or 61 percent of all undergraduates, were enrolled in at least one distance education course in fall 2021.
About 4.4 million of them, or 28 percent, took distance education courses exclusively. The trend line tells the more interesting story.
NCES reports that 36 percent of undergraduates took at least one distance education course in 2019, 75 percent in 2020, and 61 percent in 2021. Participation fell back from the pandemic peak but settled well above where it started.
Graduate study leans on it even harder. In fall 2021, some 1.8 million postbaccalaureate students took at least one distance education course, 56 percent of that population, and 1.3 million studied entirely at a distance.
One more figure is worth carrying into a program search. Among undergraduates studying exclusively at a distance in fall 2021, 74 percent were enrolled at an institution in their own state, which undercuts the assumption that distance learning means going far afield.
The four formats of distance learning
Programs use the same label for very different experiences, and the format decides whether it will fit around client work. Ask which of these four you are actually buying.
- Asynchronous: lectures and materials are posted, and you work through them on your own clock against weekly deadlines. Most forgiving for irregular schedules.
- Synchronous: live sessions at fixed times, usually by video. Closest to a classroom, and the hardest to reconcile with client calls.
- Hybrid: mostly remote with required on-campus intensives, labs or residencies. Budget for travel and for blocking out whole weeks.
- Self-paced: you set the pace within a long window, sometimes with rolling start dates. The highest completion risk for anyone without external accountability.
Most people who fail at distance learning fail at a format mismatch, not at the coursework. A consultant with unpredictable client calls should not sign up for synchronous evening seminars, however good the program looks.
Self-paced is the format I would flag hardest. It sounds ideal for freelance schedules and it has the weakest structure, which is exactly the wrong combination for most people.
How to check whether a distance learning program is accredited
Accreditation is the one piece of diligence you cannot skip, and it is not difficult. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation explains in its overview of accreditation that U.S. colleges and universities are accredited by one of 19 recognized institutional accrediting organizations, and that programs are accredited by roughly 63 recognized programmatic accreditors.
Recognized means the accreditor itself has been reviewed by CHEA or by the U.S. Department of Education. An accreditor that is not recognized by either is not a credential, it is a logo.
CHEA maintains a searchable database covering over 8,200 institutions and over 44,000 programs. Look up the institution by name before you look at anything else on its website.
The stakes are practical. CHEA notes that federal grants and loans require attendance at an accredited institution or program, and that some states require an accredited program before you can sit for a professional licensure exam.
There is one more number worth weighing. NCES found that among postbaccalaureate students studying exclusively at a distance in fall 2021, 88 percent of those at private for-profit institutions were in that category, compared with 38 percent at private nonprofits and 36 percent at public institutions.
That is not a verdict on any individual school. It does mean the fully-remote segment skews heavily toward one sector, so verify accreditation and licensure eligibility yourself rather than relying on how confident the admissions page sounds.
Why self-employed habits map onto distance learning
Working for yourself trains four things that distance learning depends on, and most traditional students arrive without any of them.
The first is self-direction. Nobody tells a freelancer when to start, and nobody tells an asynchronous student either, so the internal trigger to begin work is already installed.
The second is time-blocking. If you already protect deep-work hours from client interruptions, you have the mechanism you need to protect study hours, and you only have to point it somewhere new.
The third is working without supervision or feedback. Independent work involves long stretches with no confirmation that you are on track, which is exactly the condition of a twelve-week online course.
The fourth is tolerance for irregular schedules. Freelancers are used to weeks that do not resemble each other, so a heavy assignment week feels like a busy client week rather than a crisis.
None of this makes distance learning easy. It just means the failure modes are ones you have already met somewhere else.
Fitting distance learning around client work
The scheduling problem is real, and it is not solved by willpower. A few things consistently work for people balancing both.
Put study blocks in the same calendar as client work, not a separate list. If it does not compete for the same hours on the same calendar, it will always lose to whatever a client asks for on Tuesday.
Map the syllabus against your revenue calendar before term starts. If you know exam weeks land in your busiest invoicing period, you can shift deliverable deadlines with clients months in advance rather than apologising later.
Our guide to mastering freelance schedules alongside graduate study goes deeper on building that structure and holding boundaries with clients who expect constant availability.
Protect the cash side too, because study terms are when billing discipline tends to collapse. Having a reliable freelance invoice process means a heavy coursework week does not turn into a month of missing payments.
Plan for the tax consequences before you enrol, not in April. Some education costs may be deductible depending on your situation, and the broader list of tax mistakes self-employed people make is worth reading while you are already thinking about the cost of a program.
Where distance learning goes wrong for freelancers
The most common failure I see is capacity, not motivation. People add a full course load without removing any client work, on the theory that studying happens in the evenings.
It does not, or at least not sustainably. If you are already at full utilisation, something has to come off the plate, and deciding what in advance is far better than finding out in week six.
Isolation is the second problem. Self-employment is already solitary, and a fully asynchronous program can double that, so pick programs with cohort structures or live discussion sections if you know that affects you.
Burnout is the third, and it builds slowly enough to miss. The warning signs of self-employed burnout are worth knowing before you stack a degree on top of a full caseload.
The honest planning question is not whether you can handle distance learning. It is what you are willing to stop doing for the length of the program.
Photo by Ling App; Unsplash
Frequently asked questions about distance learning
What is distance learning?
NCES defines distance education as instruction delivered through one or more technologies to students separated from the instructor, with regular and substantive interaction between student and instructor, either synchronously or asynchronously. The interaction requirement is what distinguishes it from simply watching recorded content.
How common is distance learning in the United States?
In fall 2021, some 9.4 million undergraduates, or 61 percent of all undergraduates, took at least one distance education course, and 4.4 million took them exclusively, according to NCES. Among postbaccalaureate students, 1.8 million took at least one such course.
What is the difference between asynchronous and synchronous study?
Asynchronous courses post materials and deadlines for you to work through on your own schedule. Synchronous courses require you to attend live sessions at fixed times, which is much harder to reconcile with unpredictable client work.
How do I check whether an online program is accredited?
Search the institution and the specific program in the CHEA database, which covers over 8,200 institutions and over 44,000 programs. Confirm that the accrediting organization is recognized by CHEA or the U.S. Department of Education, since an unrecognized accreditor carries no weight.
Does accreditation affect financial aid or licensure?
Yes. CHEA notes that federal grants and loans require an accredited institution or program, and that some states require graduation from an accredited program before you can sit for a professional licensure exam.
Is distance learning harder than in-person study?
The coursework is usually equivalent, but the structure is not provided for you. Students who already set their own deadlines, protect working hours and operate without supervision tend to find the adjustment much smaller.
How much client work should I drop while studying?
Decide before the term starts rather than in week six. Map the syllabus against your invoicing calendar, identify the heaviest coursework weeks, and renegotiate client deadlines in advance instead of absorbing both loads at full capacity.
