Rapid developments in media technology have irreversibly changed both the dissemination and reception of data and information with a view to formation of knowledge. A new paradigm, called Online Education, has emerged, unleashingunconventional teaching-learning practicesand defying constraints of space, timeand resources.

Online Education provides knowledge seekers with access to diverse methods of remote learning. Teachers can reach out to learners far and wide through evolvingmedia technology. They can create a customized, and virtual, domain-the cyber domain of knowledge, compliant with the characteristics of new media.

Technology is only as good as the environment in which it is deployed, no matter how sophisticated and powerful it potentially is. Any project underOnline Education must take into account the ultimate beneficiaries, viz. the learners. Emerging technologies may very well be exciting to the communicators, yet they may prove ineffective when put into practice injudiciously. Not because, the communicators are inefficient. But because, the people for whom these new technologiesare deployed may not yet be ready, rendering an environment inadequate. Neither any hardware nor any software will be effective unless it is relevant for its beneficiaries.

We must trade the path of Online Education with caution and circumspection. Here you are dealing in technologies to engage with human minds. Mediacarry your message far and away, but to mould the mind(s) and reap behavioural changes you need both human interventionand humane touch.For Online Education, the challenge is to combine the human/humane aspects of education with the beneficial features of New Media.Once you overcome this challenge, the prospects are limitless.

Prof. Someswar Bhowmik
Officer-in-Charge and Coordinator
Centre for Online Education