Distance Learners is the service arm of New Stories, a nonprofit corporation which supports fundamental change efforts at the personal, organization and community levels.

Distance Learners supports people, institutions, and organizations that want to develop distance learning programs. We work at all stages - conception, design, web production, hosting online learning programs, online facilitation - and just about all other stages of the learning process.

The story of Distance Learners began in 1995 when Bob Stilger joined the "distance learning cohort" of the Learning and Change in Human Systems Doctoral Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. Bob had been doing community organizing and development work for more than 20 years and was looking for new ways to broaden his own understanding. Bob's first faculty were Liz Campbell and Terri O'Fallon. Liz was one of the first graduate level faculty in the country to begin developing distance learning courses, and Terri was a recent graduate of the Learning and Change Doctoral Program.

In addition to the three of us, we have a number of close partners. Big Mind Media are the folks whose spirit, values and professionalism we trust for the work we do on the web. Margaret Terrian is one of the first people we turn to for assistance with web design. A number of other folks around the world work with us on different projects.

As a community organizer, Bob fell in love with the Internet. He immediately saw the potentials for deep connection and deep learning. And the idea for Distance Learners was born.

Originally a division of Northwest Regional Facilitators, the nonprofit corporation Bob founded in 1974, and later at New Stories, Distance Learners has become known for quality service.