The purpose of this article is to explain the process of distance education and learning using information and communication technologies. A process that, in the conditions of rapid technological change and developments in the higher education market, can be analyzed as a solution to face the challenge of social demand for increasing learning opportunities without increasing the financial resources of educational institutions. This article first deals with the impact of information and communication technologies in the expansion of distance education courses. Then, it studies the role and process of distance education and learning with regard to technological changes and changes in the higher education market. It introduces some of the most important methods of distance education through the network and discusses the changes that new methods create by utilizing modern technologies in adult education and their professional development programs. Then, by examining the social nature and strategies of distance learning in the information and communication age and the networked world, it analyzes the effectiveness of distance education from various aspects, especially with an economic approach and the cost-benefit analysis method.