An interactive distance learning system which provides individualized and meaningful interactive responses to each student, as if the student is receiving instruction directly from a private tutor or instructor. An interactive program transmission occurs to a diverse number of facilities and locations. The primary transmission is a live lecture by the person making the presentation on the distance learning system. The live lecture is accompanied by questions to gage comprehension by students. The questions, in interrogatory form, are graphically displayed on the screen either as video or overlaying the video showing the lecturer. In addition to the interrogatory question, a set of responses, one correct, the rest incorrect, are also presented for the student choice. A complimentary suite of affirmative supportive commentary is prepared and prerecorded for the plurality of correct and incorrect responses which might be given to a question. Each response teaches, confirms and encourages the learning experience. A processor, branching codes and a memory device can be used to create a large variety of responses to provide an individual response for every student who responds to an interrogatory. A different response is created for every answer given to every question. Video or disk recordings of presentations can be prerecorded to demonstrate concepts or ideas or simply expand on lectured points and can be switched in and out of the video presentation of the live lecture as the instructor chooses. The transmitted interactive signal can be recorded for later playback and remain fully interactive. An extremely flexible, relatively inexpensive system is thus created which uniquely teaches and uniquely addresses the needs of every student participating in the interactive distance learning system experience.