Online learning is revolutionizing higher education both as process and social institution. It is a new social process that is beginning to act as a complete substitute for both distance learning and the traditional face-to-face class. This is because it also is a process that will infiltrate the ordinary face-to-face class and radically change the nature of what is thought of as the typical college course. Face-to-face courses skillfully blended with online learning technologies and methodologies are generally rated by students as significant improvements over traditional face-to-face classes. The pace of this change depends upon many social factors; it may take 10 years or it may take far longer. Countervailing forces might take the form of resistance or an entirely new conception of the role of education in society.