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Birth of Distance Learning?
correspondence education. Using mail to spend correspondence that allows students to study information at a distance (The Evolution of Distance Learning, 2019) -
Postcards to students
English educator, Sir Isaac Pitman, taught shorthand by mail” (UFL). Pitman would mail text on postcards to students, and students would mail their assignments back to him (The Evolution of Distance Learning, 2019). -
The Radio
Pennsylvania State University is the first college or university to broadcast courses over the radio, increasing the speed and efficiency of contact between distance learners and course content (Ferrer, 2019) -
TV
An article by Forbes notes that, in 1956, “Chicago public television station WTTW, in partnership with the local Board of Education, televises college courses for credit; over 15,000 students enroll in 5 years (Debter, 2014). -
Open University of the United Kingdom
Several factors contributed to the growth of the second generation of distance education: new communication technologies, growing sophistication in the use of printed materials, improved support services for distance students, and the establishment in 1969 of the Open University of the United Kingdom. The early multimedia course model of the Open University involved the use of one-way technologies—radio and television broadcasts and audio and video cassettes (Sumner, 2000). -
The Internet
Forbes informs that, in 1984, “National Technological University established the first accredited ‘virtual’ university with financial support from companies like IBM, Motorola and HP. It delivers academic courses to employees via TV” (Debter, 2014) -
First Online University
The University of Phoenix, a private for-profit school, launches its online degree program. This is the first program to offer both undergraduate and graduate degrees completely online (Ferrer, 2019). -
Blackboard LMS Launches
In 1998, Blackboard merged with CourseInfo LLC, a course management software provider and startup company at Cornell University and the merged company soon released their first software product for online learning (Bradford, et al. 2007) -
Khan Academy founded
Khan Academy is an American non-profit educational organization created in 2006 by Sal Khan, with the goal of creating a set of online tools that help educate students. The organization produces short lessons in the form of videos. Its website also includes supplementary practice exercises and materials for educators (Adams, 2013). -
Iphone releases
With Apple's release of the iPhone the possibility of mobile learning is greatly expanded. Access to information and LMS is now just a click away for millions of Americans (Kim, 2012). -
Yotube Edu
YouTube EDU, an educational hub “volunteer project sparked by a group of employees who wanted to find a better way to collect and highlight all the great educational content being uploaded to YouTube by colleges and universities”. The site is aggregating videos from dozens of colleges and universities, ranging from lectures to student films to athletic events. Some of this stuff is solid gold (the Stanford and MIT lectures are really good (Arrington, 2009). -
Online College Regulation
The Department of Education issues new regulations which require online colleges to satisfy all state–level educational requirements. This mandate places a huge regulatory burden on online colleges. Additionally, the same regulatory measures mandate a strict rubric using credit hours to measure learning, instead of competencies or other measures (Ferrer, 2019). -
Coursera Launches
Back in April 2012, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng launched Coursera to enable anyone, anywhere to transform their lives through learning. Today Coursera connects 40 million learners around the globe with the world’s greatest thinkers, educators, and institutions. It's considered to be among the best and most successful e-; learning programs (Coursera Turns 7: Celebrate With Us!, 2019) -
Ivy League Offers Online Degrees
Online college is growing in popularity. Even more importantly though, online college is growing in credibility. For proof, look no further than the Ivy League. As the nation’s most selective colleges and universities open up to the concept of online courses and online degrees, even the Ivy Leagues are taking the virtual plunge (TBS staff, 2019). -
e-Learning boom
E-Learning Market size was valued at USD 171 Billion in 2019 and is expected to grow CAGR 10.85% by 2025. One of the major factors that are expected to increase the growth of the e-learning market size is the increase in microlearning adoption, which refers to learning using bite-sized content. As educational institutions and the private sector concentrate on personalized learning, there will be a rising preference for microlearning during the forecast period (Online Education Market, 2020).
