Although distance education is not a new concept, the field has struggled for decades to gain credibility in academic circles. Drawing from a thorough investigation of current distance education systems and protocols, this project aims to explore the current untapped potential of on-line education, and develop several design elements to improve the efficiency of distance knowledge transfer. Central to this goal is the ability to provide direct feedback to the instructor about the accessibility of the presented materials. To do this, I am exploring the use of web-cam based eye-tracking to analyze the cognitive load of the user and thereby give quantifiable feedback about the complexity of a presented document. Further exploration will revolve around the theory that eye-tracking can also help in the identification of a users ‘learning style’, and that this could in turn be used to help create an e-learning environment that automatically presents information in the most relevant format possible for each individual student, thus increasing the efficiency of knowledge transfer.