The field of distance education is a dynamic field which includes a growing body of research. The field of distance education raises many questions which encompass the spectrum of human and technological questions of interest to those of us who practice various forms of distance education. As doctoral students in the field of distance education, we were interested in developing a systematic approach for studying the current problems in this diverse field. We organized the literature into the seven research categories of research including conceptualization, learners and learning, technology and designing instruction for distance education, faculty in distance education, policy, administration and management, institutional contexts, and international contexts. We then each searched the literature and prepared annotated bibliographies for selected research within each category. We then selected a series of articles which we deemed appropriate and comprehensive. Many of the articles that were chosen have been seen as useful both administrators in higher education and secondary education.