The History of Distance Learning

Distance Education from the Early 20th Century through the 90's
Karen Y. Carter

Education has come a long way from the little one room schoolhouse. From traveling for miles in all types of weather to correspondence courses to computers to video conferencing, the way people receive an education has been changing rapidly. Distance Education in particular is moving from going a distance to receive an education to receiving an education from a distance.. What are the roots of distance education and the impact on society caused by this method?

Distance learning started in the form of correspondence courses at the turn of the twentieth century. “Correspondence courses were heralded with promises similar to those for online distance learning. The result was a boom in the distance learning market, with leading universities like Columbia actively involved…Some state colleges remained active in correspondence education. Many of them are current leaders in distance learning because they were the best suited to take advantage of the new technologies as they arrived” (Olson, 2001). There are still a few schools which continue to offer correspondence courses. Parents who wish to home school their children, adults who wish to complete their high school education or begin a new career can find a myriad of schools to choose from.

Television brought a different dimension to distance learning which according to Olson (2001) did not meet expectations for making major changes in education. Television was used primarily by colleges and universities as part of the lecture course. Television stations such as PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) offer GED and literacy classes for adults as well as educational programs for children such as Sesame Street. Interaction between students and the lecturer was limited because of the technology except through the use of interactive video, therefore, most professors continued to rely on lectures.

With the advent of the internet, such interactions were made possible. Asynchronous methods were developed because of slow and unstable networks. “The Sloan Foundation sponsored experimentation with ALN (Asynchronous Learning Networks) that were designed to focus instruction on learners using cooperative and collaborative teaching techniques long used in elementary school education…Research in comparing differences inevitably found no significant difference, although some differences inevitably confounded by the quasi-experimental circumstances” (Olson, 2001).

A congressional commission, the Web-based Instruction Commission, chaired by former Senator Bob Kerry of Nebraska came about because of support for interactive Internet instruction. The commission concluded that the federal government should invest in Web-based instruction because of the potential for furthering national goals despite the fact that the requirement of interactive instruction made it unlikely that it would reduce educational costs significantly. The National Center for Education Statistics in their 1997 – 1998 report entitled, distance Education at Post-secondary Education Institutions, the use of distance learning activity has increased in recent years.

Indeed it has. The evolution of distance learning has led many colleges and universities as well as other companies to expand and/or add distance learning components to their offerings. In addition, there has been the establishment of several virtual universities such as Capella University and Western Governors’ University. Even accrediting agencies are taking notice. Jones International University, a for-profit school, founded by Glenn R. Jones, became the first completely online university to receive accreditation from a regional accrediting association.

The future of distance learning is uncertain except in the area of online distance learning. Online distance learning is changing the way education is delivered to adults particularly in the area of campus based instruction. We are just now beginning to see how online learning affects how adults learn and how society views the validity of online learning.

References

Bereiter, C. (2003). Introduction. Journal of Distance Education, 17(3), 1-7. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

Olson, J. (2001). Distance Learning and the Transformation of Higher Education. Reference Librarian, 35(74), 221. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.