Regardless of formal membership status, individuals with a scholarly interest in online education are welcome to start participating in our global virtual organization by joining the WAOE-Views mailing list.  In a recent post, Steve McCarty in Japan explained some history and why WAOE membership is free: "In 1998-99 WAOE was growing quite large, but some directors thought members should pay dues. That unfortunately took WAOE away from many people we wanted to serve but who did not make online payments in U.S. dollars, at least in those days. Membership numbers have declined since then, but we were able to abolish dues in the year 2000 by letting honoraria for articles published at the Child Research Net Website in Tokyo go to WAOE. Arun Tripathi in Germany, Prof. Roberto Mueller in Brazil, and other officers were involved in collaborating with the the Child Research Net on a World Cultural Festival. WAOE has also thankfully received donations from officers and general members. As a result, WAOE's domain registration and ISP are paid for until around 2015."

The World Association for Online Education is a free membership organization and consists of individual educators concerned with e-learning. Be careful of any sites that imply recognition by the WAOE, as our policy is clearly to bring together individual teachers and learners with no economic motives. The WAOE, one of the first global virtual organizations, also has had an interface to the physical world as an NPO registered with the State of California. However, from 2011 WAOE is changing into an informal NGO and donating about $1,400 to a hospital in Bangladesh. See the page recording changes made by the WAOE Board of Directors. Check out the rest of the Website, starting with our directors, vision and how to participate. Contact us through the e-mail form on the Participation page about joining our discussion list WAOE-Views, or anything about the organization.