Abstract
This article presents the idea that distance delivery in social work education is seen as an interaction between four constructs: the student, the setting in which the education is delivered, the educational content, and the expected educational outcomes. To fully understand these interactions, clear operational indicators, well established in construct validity, need to be identified. First, issues with the current approaches to researching distance education are described. Second, using the idea of the theory of construct validity, the four constructs are presented to facilitate a discussion about establishing operational indicators that have potential to inform the interaction. Finally, suggestions for determining the soundness of the construct and developing multivariate models indicative of the interaction are described.