The History of Distance Education
rahul
Sunday, 13 November 2016
Early History
Though the focus of this guide is online education, the origins of this educational approach actually date quite a bit further back in history than the proliferation or even the invention of the Internet. In fact, online education falls under the larger umbrella concept of “distance education.” Distance education refers to the experience of receiving instruction as mediated by some mode of communication that transcends geographical space.
According to a 2005 article in Distance Learning magazine, this educational strategy did begin with an innovation, but it wasn’t email. Long before the term “snail mail” had entered the popular vernacular, the innovation of standardized penny postage in the United Kingdom made distance education a reality.
In 1840, English teacher Isaac Pitman put the Penny Post system to constructive use, offering shorthand writing instruction through mailed correspondence. What most differentiated Pitman’s approach from prior attempts at correspondence education was the educator’s own active feedback and assessment of completed work. This bilateral communication between remotely located educator and student would form the basis for distance education.
In just three years, Pitman had parlayed his innovation into the Phonographic Correspondence Society and, thereafter, Sir Isaac Pitman’s Correspondence Colleges. Pitman’s approach gained ground with educators throughout Europe as the nineteenth century wore on. According to Distance Learning, the late 1800s saw the emergence of several leading distance education institutions, including Edinburgh’s Skerry’s College in 1878, London’s Correspondence College in 1887, and, in Sweden, the influential Hermod’s, which was officially established in 1898.[4]
The strategy even gained ground in the United States before the turn of the century, with newly established institutions like the University of Chicago making correspondence education a major part of their educational arsenal as early as 1890.[5] Within the decade, major distance education institutions had emerged in Boston and eastern Pennsylvania as well.
Proliferation
As with online colleges today, early distance education was greeted with mixed feelings. According to Distance Learning, correspondence education “was designed to provide educational opportunities for those who were not among the economic elite and who could not afford full time residence at an educational institution. Many saw it as simply a business operation, and viewed this alternative as inferior education. Moreover, these distance opportunities extended education potential to the masses, an extreme departure from the undemocratic educational system that characterized the early years of U.S. history.”
Distance Learning posits that in spite of the reservations of its critics, distance learning spread thanks to a cultural push for more equal educational access in the U.S. In a similar way, this account will demonstrate that online colleges today are very much affected by the same mixed bag of support and criticism that impacted distance education in its earliest incarnations. That is, the desire for equal educational access continues to collide with questions of quality assurance all across the online college industry.
Another common feature of distance education throughout its history is that technological innovation has often been the force to spark its evolution. With the proliferation of radio in the earliest 20th century, a number of the first regularly broadcast programs incorporated educational instruction coming from universities and other places of learning. In many developing nations, call-in educational programs remain an important channel for teaching otherwise remote, isolated, or impoverished populations.
By the late 1930s, television was beginning to supplant radio as the preferred medium for broadcast correspondence education. According to Distance Learning, in 1951 Cleveland’s Western Reserve University became the first school to offer college credit courses through television broadcast. New York University, which adopted the approach, offered “Sunrise Semester” courses through a partnership with CBS from 1957 to 1982.
Synchronous Distance Education
What most separates this earlier form of distance learning from its present online incarnation is asynchronicity. That is, traditional modes of distance learning have relied on correspondence with transmission inherently delayed or—to say it simply—out of sync. This means lapses of time necessarily interrupt the cycle of instruction, inquiry, response, assignment submission, assessment, and feedback. Though asynchronous distance learning historically overcame the physical limitations caused by spatial distances, the challenge of temporal lag or delay always limited its dynamism and appeal.
The first attempts at overcoming this obstacle took the form of two-way audio communication between students and educator, not much different from a multiperson telephone conference. By the end of the 20th century, media such as open broadcast cable and “interactive instructional TV” (ITV) would combine this audio communication with video. This approach to televised live lecturing became increasingly popular during the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed, many early-adopting U.S. state governments employed ITV in order to establish statewide distance learning networks with considerable success.
World Wide WebOf course, all of these innovations would merely set the virtual stage for what the web has made possible. In the mid-1990s, as household web usage became increasingly standard, its synchronous, multilateral education capabilities began coming into focus. The web had made the immediate transmission of video, audio, graphical, and compositional content considerably easier, more reliable, and more accessible. In 1996, Jones International University became the first online university in the United States to receive full accreditation, when it gained recognition through the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
By the start of the new millennium, online colleges moved from the educational fringe to center stage as one of the fastest-growing forms of education in circulation. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “from 2000 to 2008, the percentage of undergraduates enrolled in at least one distance education class expanded from 8 percent to 20 percent, and the percentage enrolled in a distance education degree program increased from 2 percent to 4 percent.
Prevalence Today
Today, online education occupies a place of great importance in the grander scheme of higher education. In spite of concerns over the business imperatives that sometimes drive this educational sector (an issue discussed at length throughout this account) and in spite of some early skepticism over the instructional quality distance education can achieve, it is now clear the benefits of online education far exceed its drawbacks.
In an overview of distance learning, an associate professor and Director of Business Education from the University of West Georgia (2007) surmises that “Several changes have taken place in online education over the years. Online education has moved from a minor alternative role of ‘learning by correspondence’ to the center of life at most universities. The Internet has played a significant role in these changes because it has assisted instructors to more effectively respond to the limitations often cited regarding online education and it has been used to deliver instruction to students and employees at remote sites.”[12; references omitted]
As the benefits have become self-evident, so too has the prevalence of the online college industry. Universities and private enterprises alike have substantially increased their investment in online colleges over the last decade or more and have, in turn, enjoyed broader enrollment capacity and greater revenues.
Both by way of traditional universities and for-profit corporations, online colleges have become a largely entrenched dimension of America’s broader educational strategy. An article in EdTech Magazine (2012) offers a set of statistics illustrating not only that online colleges are an important part of education, but also that web-mediated distance learning has actually replaced the brick-and-mortar classroom experience for many students. For still other students, online education has forged and widened a previously non-existent learning space, one that makes higher education accessible to those who might otherwise remain disenfranchised.[14]
According to EdTech Magazine, 65 percent of students consulted in 2012 had taken some online classes. A nearly identical 64 percent of full-time faculty at community colleges taught through some form of online distance education.[15]
The Magazine goes on to report that 60 percent of four-year private schools and fully 90 percent of four-year public colleges offer online classes to their students. For two-year colleges, the number is 91 percent.[16]
Also, as of 2012, 58 percent of all colleges and universities offered degrees for which every bit of coursework could be completed online.[17] Statistics also reflect a shared and growing perception among students, faculty, and college administrators that online education is an essential part of the future of education and that the increased accessibility and flexibility that it facilitates is improving educational opportunities in far-reaching and profound ways.
Early History
Though the focus of this guide is online education, the origins of this educational approach actually date quite a bit further back in history than the proliferation or even the invention of the Internet. In fact, online education falls under the larger umbrella concept of “distance education.” Distance education refers to the experience of receiving instruction as mediated by some mode of communication that transcends geographical space.
According to a 2005 article in Distance Learning magazine, this educational strategy did begin with an innovation, but it wasn’t email. Long before the term “snail mail” had entered the popular vernacular, the innovation of standardized penny postage in the United Kingdom made distance education a reality.
In 1840, English teacher Isaac Pitman put the Penny Post system to constructive use, offering shorthand writing instruction through mailed correspondence. What most differentiated Pitman’s approach from prior attempts at correspondence education was the educator’s own active feedback and assessment of completed work. This bilateral communication between remotely located educator and student would form the basis for distance education.
In just three years, Pitman had parlayed his innovation into the Phonographic Correspondence Society and, thereafter, Sir Isaac Pitman’s Correspondence Colleges. Pitman’s approach gained ground with educators throughout Europe as the nineteenth century wore on. According to Distance Learning, the late 1800s saw the emergence of several leading distance education institutions, including Edinburgh’s Skerry’s College in 1878, London’s Correspondence College in 1887, and, in Sweden, the influential Hermod’s, which was officially established in 1898.[4]
The strategy even gained ground in the United States before the turn of the century, with newly established institutions like the University of Chicago making correspondence education a major part of their educational arsenal as early as 1890.[5] Within the decade, major distance education institutions had emerged in Boston and eastern Pennsylvania as well.
Proliferation
As with online colleges today, early distance education was greeted with mixed feelings. According to Distance Learning, correspondence education “was designed to provide educational opportunities for those who were not among the economic elite and who could not afford full time residence at an educational institution. Many saw it as simply a business operation, and viewed this alternative as inferior education. Moreover, these distance opportunities extended education potential to the masses, an extreme departure from the undemocratic educational system that characterized the early years of U.S. history.”
Distance Learning posits that in spite of the reservations of its critics, distance learning spread thanks to a cultural push for more equal educational access in the U.S. In a similar way, this account will demonstrate that online colleges today are very much affected by the same mixed bag of support and criticism that impacted distance education in its earliest incarnations. That is, the desire for equal educational access continues to collide with questions of quality assurance all across the online college industry.
Another common feature of distance education throughout its history is that technological innovation has often been the force to spark its evolution. With the proliferation of radio in the earliest 20th century, a number of the first regularly broadcast programs incorporated educational instruction coming from universities and other places of learning. In many developing nations, call-in educational programs remain an important channel for teaching otherwise remote, isolated, or impoverished populations.
By the late 1930s, television was beginning to supplant radio as the preferred medium for broadcast correspondence education. According to Distance Learning, in 1951 Cleveland’s Western Reserve University became the first school to offer college credit courses through television broadcast. New York University, which adopted the approach, offered “Sunrise Semester” courses through a partnership with CBS from 1957 to 1982.
Synchronous Distance Education
What most separates this earlier form of distance learning from its present online incarnation is asynchronicity. That is, traditional modes of distance learning have relied on correspondence with transmission inherently delayed or—to say it simply—out of sync. This means lapses of time necessarily interrupt the cycle of instruction, inquiry, response, assignment submission, assessment, and feedback. Though asynchronous distance learning historically overcame the physical limitations caused by spatial distances, the challenge of temporal lag or delay always limited its dynamism and appeal.
The first attempts at overcoming this obstacle took the form of two-way audio communication between students and educator, not much different from a multiperson telephone conference. By the end of the 20th century, media such as open broadcast cable and “interactive instructional TV” (ITV) would combine this audio communication with video. This approach to televised live lecturing became increasingly popular during the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed, many early-adopting U.S. state governments employed ITV in order to establish statewide distance learning networks with considerable success.
World Wide WebOf course, all of these innovations would merely set the virtual stage for what the web has made possible. In the mid-1990s, as household web usage became increasingly standard, its synchronous, multilateral education capabilities began coming into focus. The web had made the immediate transmission of video, audio, graphical, and compositional content considerably easier, more reliable, and more accessible. In 1996, Jones International University became the first online university in the United States to receive full accreditation, when it gained recognition through the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
By the start of the new millennium, online colleges moved from the educational fringe to center stage as one of the fastest-growing forms of education in circulation. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, “from 2000 to 2008, the percentage of undergraduates enrolled in at least one distance education class expanded from 8 percent to 20 percent, and the percentage enrolled in a distance education degree program increased from 2 percent to 4 percent.
Prevalence Today
Today, online education occupies a place of great importance in the grander scheme of higher education. In spite of concerns over the business imperatives that sometimes drive this educational sector (an issue discussed at length throughout this account) and in spite of some early skepticism over the instructional quality distance education can achieve, it is now clear the benefits of online education far exceed its drawbacks.
In an overview of distance learning, an associate professor and Director of Business Education from the University of West Georgia (2007) surmises that “Several changes have taken place in online education over the years. Online education has moved from a minor alternative role of ‘learning by correspondence’ to the center of life at most universities. The Internet has played a significant role in these changes because it has assisted instructors to more effectively respond to the limitations often cited regarding online education and it has been used to deliver instruction to students and employees at remote sites.”[12; references omitted]
As the benefits have become self-evident, so too has the prevalence of the online college industry. Universities and private enterprises alike have substantially increased their investment in online colleges over the last decade or more and have, in turn, enjoyed broader enrollment capacity and greater revenues.
Both by way of traditional universities and for-profit corporations, online colleges have become a largely entrenched dimension of America’s broader educational strategy. An article in EdTech Magazine (2012) offers a set of statistics illustrating not only that online colleges are an important part of education, but also that web-mediated distance learning has actually replaced the brick-and-mortar classroom experience for many students. For still other students, online education has forged and widened a previously non-existent learning space, one that makes higher education accessible to those who might otherwise remain disenfranchised.[14]
According to EdTech Magazine, 65 percent of students consulted in 2012 had taken some online classes. A nearly identical 64 percent of full-time faculty at community colleges taught through some form of online distance education.[15]
The Magazine goes on to report that 60 percent of four-year private schools and fully 90 percent of four-year public colleges offer online classes to their students. For two-year colleges, the number is 91 percent.[16]
Also, as of 2012, 58 percent of all colleges and universities offered degrees for which every bit of coursework could be completed online.[17] Statistics also reflect a shared and growing perception among students, faculty, and college administrators that online education is an essential part of the future of education and that the increased accessibility and flexibility that it facilitates is improving educational opportunities in far-reaching and profound ways.
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