1991 - Alberta had a network of educational institutions that collaboratively delivered teleconferencing courses to learners throughout the province. The institutions offering courses included Alberta Distance Learning Centre, Athabasca University, AVC-Lesser Slave Lake, University of Alberta, University of Calgary, Lethbridge Community College, SAIT, NAIT, Mount Royal College, Grant MacEwan Community College and Red Deer College. Many of these institutions also supported learners taking the courses as well as the Community Educational Consortiums.

That same year representative of these stakeholders came together to organize a professional association that would meet several unmet needs of the group. The Alberta Distance Education and Training Association (ADETA) was formed with Rob BoshcaBosscha from Lethbridge Community College as it’s first president. The board of directors comprised key representatives of the stakeholders and the three key sectors (K-12, post secondary and corporate training)

There were three main focuses of the association and three standing committees were formed that focused on them. They were:

• Professional Development – providing PD opportunities for Albertans working in the field of distance education and training.
• Professional Affairs - promoting distance education as a field and providing advocacy for the stakeholder to government, vendors and other bodies when needed.
• Network Coordination – coordinate and scheduling the collaboration of the providers, receivers and telephone infrastructure for successful distance learning.

1993 – Rod Corbett took over as president as Rob served two terms. The total membership as about 250. ADETA lobbied the Alberta Government for more recognition and support for distance education as a viable way to provide quality educational opportunities throughout the province.

1994 – Clayton R. Wright organized the first Interface conference and hosted it at Grant MacEwan College. He invited ADETA, CML-PUG (Computer Managed Learning - Provincial Users Group) and the IDN (Instructional Development Network) to participant. Before this, CML-PUG was holding their own annual conference and ADETA was considering having a conference. Clayton also invite representatives from the colleges, NAIT and SAIT to set on a steering committee for the conference. The conference was very successful and have about 450 participants.

1995 – Terry Anderson took over as president as Rod served two terms. SAIT hosted the Interface ’95 conference which still included ADETA, CML-PUG and the IDN. The website was started as well as a listserv for distributing emails to members. An archive of the newsletters was post one the website.


1996 – AVC – Lesser Slave Lake hosted the Interface ’96 conference in Slave Lake.
Bill Muirhead started the Alberta Online Consortium. ADETA was concerned that the K-12 sector would migrate to AOC. A new logo, exhibit booth and newsletter designed was created to give ADETA a more consistent look.

1997 - Brian Shepherd served next as president. Rod Corbett took over as Newsletter Editor from Sylvia Teare, who had been editing it from the start.

1998 – Fay Jackson served as president

2000 - Pat Fahy served as president

2002 - Ingrid Stammer served as president.

2004 - Sandi Barber served as president.

2005- Interface took place at the University of Lethbridge.

2006 - Rod Corbett took over as president after Sandi served for two terms.