In spite of ten campuses spread over four islands, access to higher education at the University of Hawai'i (UH) is unevenly distributed across the state. In an effort to address the problem of access, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has funded the University of Hawai'i to develop online courses and programs. In this article, the author describes the Asynchronous Learning Network (ALN) project at UH. This project, funded by the Sloan Foundation, was instrumental in creating a number of online programs at UH Manoa and UH Hilo. The author highlights some of the important issues and developments involved in creating sustainable and scalable online distance learning programs at the University of Hawai'i.