The reality of self-initiated and planned learning was first revealed by Johnstone and Rivera's (1965) national survey of adult education participation in the United States. Also about this time, Tough (1979) was beginning his research into deliberate adult self-planned learning projects which produced a flood of enquiry into the nature of self-directed learning activities. Tough's original research, based upon a small representative sample, indicated that well over 90% of the interviewees had conducted a learning project during the previous year. The extent of self-initiated and planned learning has been corroborated in subsequent research and confirmed by Penland (1979) in a national survey in the United States. The results of Penland's survey showed that 76% of the population had conducted at least one learning project in the previous year. Resulting from the realization that informal learning is pervasive across socio-economic levels, self-directed learning has become a central concept in adult education theory and is often seen as its ultimate aim (Brookfield, 1986; Mezirow, 1985). While the importance of the concept is clear, an appreciation of its complexity and facilitation demands greater attention. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the concept of self-directed learning with a particular focus on the facilitation of self-directed learning in the informal or non-institutional setting. It will be argued that if adult educators are to influence self-directed learning beyond the formal institutional setting, then they will have to understand the process of self-directed learning and begin to embrace technologies that can mediate interaction between facilitator and learner at a distance. The paper will begin with a clarification of self-directed learning and will be followed by an outline and discussion of the ability of distance education to facilitate such learning.