Stanford, through SCPD's Stanford Online, was the first university to incorporate video with audio, text, and graphics in its distance learning offerings. Stanford Online is credited by many sources as a significant contributor to the growth of Silicon Valley, and to the competitive technical advantage of companies that participate in continuing education through distance learning.

Stanford Online offers many SCPD courses through streaming media technology, which can be viewed through any broadband connection (DSL or Cable).

Within two hours of the actual course concluding at Stanford University, the course is posted to this Web site, in the Online Classroom. It is fully indexed and synchronized with all of the slides used during the lecture.

Students can interact with the instructor, teaching assistant, and/or other students asynchronously from their desktop computer through chat and threaded newsgroups technologies.