The purpose of this study is to explore what pre-service teachers have experienced and reflected on through designing distance learning and suggest the improvements to reinforce the competencies for distance learning for the teacher training institutes. For this, data were collected from 18 pre-service teachers who participated in a project named ‘Improving distance learning competencies of pre-service teachers’ through in-depth interviews and participant observation. According to the analysis of the data, the pre-service teachers’ experience of designing distance learning was found in three areas : ‘pre-service teachers’ understanding of roles and teaching strategies in distance learning’, ‘possibilities and limitations of distance learning realized through design of distance learning’, ‘the reflection and demand from the practice of distance learning’.The study findings and results are as follows. First, pre-service teachers can understand the various teacher s role in distance learning and explore appropriate teaching strategies when they become designers of distance learning. Second, pre-service teachers experienced the possibilities and limitations of distance learning while they were designing the lessons, and they reflected what they have felt in their lesson designs. Third, pre-service teachers not only reflected on themselves as teachers for distance learning through their teaching practice in distance learning, but also became independent pre-service teachers who care about field issues and can request specific needs regarding distance learning. Based on the results of this study, it is required to change the curriculum to strengthen the competencies for distance learning for the teacher training institutes and to expand opportunities of distance learning practice for pre-service teachers.