Mention "book club" and the image that probably comes to mind is an intimate group sharing their thoughts while sipping coffee in someone's living room. Maybe it's a coffeehouse designed to have that same homey feel, or a church library. At any rate, there is a bond that brings the group together. It's not just that they have read the same book, but that they share a desire to "see" the book through each other's eyes.

Did anyone picture one person sitting alone in the quiet and darkness of his or her own home, in front of a computer?

Yet that's just exactly what scores of people are doing right now as a new part of Oprah Winfrey's Book Club: signing on to weekly Web casts with Oprah herself and author Eckhart Tolle to discuss Tolle's new book about discovering your true self.

It's a clear demonstration of just how mainstream online learning has become. It seems everyone is utilizing the Internet for some kind of adult education.

At PCMA, we're careful to strike a balance between online and in-person learning. Some kinds of learning are simply not well suited to an online model. And perhaps most importantly, it's much more difficult to have experiences in the virtual world that experts agree are crucial to the learning process; there's that elusive benefit to getting together face-to-face to network, communicate, mentor, and learn from others.

So while we give you opportunities to learn without leaving your desk (see box), we'll continue to invite you to join many of our popular education events in face-to-face settings. We'll also go on to explore new learning techniques - whether in person or online - to help you get the most out of PCMA education. (By the way, our own book club meeting, first held at the 2008 Annual Meeting to discuss Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind, was tremendously popular. And we're considering initiating an online book club of our own.)

But our focus remains on providing education that is effective, not simply taking advantage of the latest technology. We want your feedback on what programs you liked best and which modes of delivery helped you learn best. It may turn out that the most effective approaches will vary depending on the person, and that's fine: You will be the one deciding which way you choose to participate.

Providing superior education is what PCMA is all about. We're making sure we are giving you options to take advantage of this education and to learn on your own terms.