In Romania, the DL system is relatively a new system of education, implemented officially 15 years ago. This was a big step forward aiming to modernize the traditional education. The key issue was to approve the the legislation which defines this type of education and the quality standards that higher education institutions are obliged to fulfil. As a result, public and private Romania universities have implemented DL study programs which are accredited by the ARACIS - the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Hicher Education. We would like to highlight that the diplomas obtained through DL studu programs are equivalent with the diplomas obtained through traditional on-campus education. Nowadays, the world wide trends in education reveal an spectacular increase in online education. Are we affraid to promote the online education in Romania? Are we prepared, from pedagogical and technical point of view, to design, implement and manage the online system of education in Romania? The clear reply of the authors to this questions is: "YES, we the DL practitioners in Romania, we are well prepared for online learning!". In the first part of this article the author will synthesize her experience as DL practitioner within the Department CREDITS for DL, within University of Bucharest. The author will identify "lessons" that she has learned as managing director of this department, during the past 15 years. In the second part of the article, the author will assess the complexity of the transition from the current RO-DL system to a new system similar with online (in Europe and USA). Also, such an initiative is correlated with strategic educational programs and with the CE's initiatives. The article will include the conclusions stating that, we need a small step forward to design and implement online study programs in Romania; this step is small by comparison with implementation of DL-RO. There is still a big problem to this subject: the decision makers!

distance learning, online learning, rethinking education