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Chautauqua Movement
An organization known as the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle created a 4 year correspondence based program to help supplement the education students would be getting from summer schools. This would be the first of many correspondence courses offered. -
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The First Era: Correspondence
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University of Chicago
William Harper becomes president of the University of Chicago and begins a program which would become the first formal program of university distance education. -
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The Second Era: Radio and TV
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Latter Day Saints' University
The LDSU was the first institute to receive an educational radio license. -
First For-Credit Radio Courses Offered
The State University of Iowa was the first university to offer a for-credit radio course. -
National Home Study Council is Created
The National Home Study Council (NHSC) is created to provide an ethical and regulatory framework for distance education. -
First Educational Broadcasts Over Television
The State University of Iowa presented its first educational TV programs in oral hygiene and astronomy. -
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The Third Era: AIM and OU
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Experimental Licenses Issued for ITFS
Instructional Television Fixed Service was instituted after the FCC gave an experimental license to the Plainedge School System in Long Island, NY. ITFS was low cost and did not require many resources to run. This allowed to schools in a 25 mile radius to receive educational programing. -
Educational Television Stations Constructed
In 1962, the Federal Education Television Facilities Act Funded the creation of several television stations dedicated to educational content. -
The Creation of AIM
The Articulated Instructional Media Project was created by the Carnegie Corporation and was directed by Charles Wedemeyer. The goal of this project was to join together different communication technologies in order to provide high-quality and cheap education to students who could not attend in-person. -
Open University
The Open University was developed with the help of the British government and was made to be the world's premier distance education university. -
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The Fourth Era: Teleconferencing
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The Beginning of Telecourses
In this year, the FCC began requiring that all cable operators provide at least one educational channel. These channels were deemed "telecourses." -
Interactive Video-Conferencing
IVC was developed in the late 1960s to use satellite technology to video conference. The first educational use of satellite came in 1974. This allowed to education to be broadcast in even the remotest of places. -
Computers in School
In 1975, nearly half of all students had access to computers at school. This was in thanks to Intel developing the first microprocessor in 1971. -
The Star Schools Program Assistance Act
Telecommunications did not make their way into k-12 schools until 1987 with the passing of the Star Schools Program Assistance Act. This allowed different organizations of consortia to provide over 8,000 students with high school credits. -
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The Fifth Generation: Computer, Internet, and Virtual Courses
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The World Wide Web
CERN released the framework for the World Wide Web to the public domain, which was the beginning of the internet as we know it today. -
Access to Internet and Online Education
By the 2010s, 77% of adults had access to the internet and many schools were providing access to educational courses and degrees.