System Evaluation
Basic measures of activity
Any evaluation system must begin with certain basic measures.
- How many courses have been produced?
- How many students are there?   
-How many applicants had to be turned away?

This information is drawn from administrative records and is presented, proudly or otherwise, in annual reports.
Measures of efficiency
It is related to measures of activity come those of efficiency.
- How many students successfully complete the courses?
- What workload do they attempt?
- What is the throughput of students?

The evaluation is likely may move beyond the descriptive to the examination of patterns and causes. In this way, postal surveys can be carried out asking students why they dropped out of courses. Though, these are predisposed to produce low response rates and answers of dubious validity. A more methodical approach comprises a combination of methods including detailed statistical analysis, an understanding of the subjective process of "dropping-out" and an awareness of the different policy options and their likely impact.
Other effectiveness assesses centre on the question of cost-effectiveness. For this reason, distance education is a cheap teaching method, but just how cheap or whether it is cheap at all is still in dispute. Differences among the economists centre upon difficulties in making comparisons with conventional institutions. How can one allow for the fact that distance students remain economically active while studying? Is it essential that adult students have less years of economic activity in which to employ their new knowledge?

Outcomes
Adequate learning measures are usually considered to be covered by formal exams and assessment. However, there have been some attempts to measure the development of distance students as learners using study inventories and in-depth interviews over a period of several years.
On many distance courses there are no formal exams and follow up surveys have to be carried out to see whether there have been appropriate changes in behavior or attitudes. This study has been undertaken to see whether people carried out the energy-saving measures in their home that were specifically recommended. Somewhere else the focus has been on health campaigns and changes in agricultural methods.

Mail review of graduates has been carried out to measure the personal, occupational and educational outcomes of their studies. These studies allow one to measure the subjective benefits experienced by individuals and the extent to which the qualification is recognized by other educational institutions and professional bodies. Practical problems include those of tracing graduates after a number of years, finding appropriate comparison groups and determining which changes was a direct result of their studies.
The identification of the qualification can also be approached from the other direction. An employer’s survey was carried out to establish the standing of the university degree and the acceptability of its graduates.
Distance education can have other outputs besides the more obvious ones. These consist of the teaching materials in other institutions; the passing on of materials to other learners; and effects on the educational motivation of the children of distance learners.