High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Transactional Distance refers to the theory of cognitive space between instructors and learners in an educational setting, especially in distance education formulated by Michael Moore at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Moore`s theory was originally part of a theory of independent learning developed in 1972, which appeared in the Handbook of Adult Education as "transactional distance" in 1980. According to Moore, transactional distance is “a psychological and communication space to be crossed, a space of potential misunderstanding between the inputs of instructor and those of the learner”. If learning outcomes in any distance education course are to be maximized, transactional distance needs to be minimized or shortened.