What is meant by 'Flexible and Distributed Learning'?

The term 'Flexible and Distributed Learning' (FDL) is one that has been very much on my mind of late. The context is the development and validation of the MAPP - DL, or rather the MAPP - FDL as we are now referring to it! It seems that we as a University prefer to describe this mode of delivery as 'flexible and distributed learning' as opposed to 'distance learning'. This is in accordance with the terminology used by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) who describe flexible and distributed learning as:

"educational provision... ...through means which generally do not require the student to attend particular classes or events at particular times and particular locations." (QAA, 2010)

 I am quite comfortable with the use of FDL as a description of the mode of delivery for our 'distance' MAPP, as FDL covers distance learning, e-learning, and even blended learning. One issue it does raise for prospective students is that FDL as an abbreviation is probably not something that many are familiar with, and even the full 'Flexible and Distributed Learning' needs a little clarification in terms of what exactly do we mean by this?

In particular, one thing to clarify is how 'flexible' is our provision? We will need to clearly explain to potential students that we are still bound by the University semesters and the academic calendar in that modules will run during these times and a 15 credit module will be a semester-long module. It is not so flexible that a student could begin whenever the wish, and complete within a week if they worked through the course materials in that time. This may be the expectation for some who are looking for 'online' courses. However, the course will be flexible in that students may access materials at times more convenient for them, there is some flexibility to allow students to work through materials at their own pace (within some constraints), and they do not need to attend classes at particular times and at particular locations.