A History of Distance Learning

Correspondence education,

the earliest version of distance education,

was developed in the mid-nineteenth century in Europe and the United States.

In 1840, an English educator, Sir Isaac Pitman, taught shorthand by mail.

In the United States during the nineteenth century, there were several opportunities in adult education prior to the advent ofuniversity extension beyond campuses.

In 1873, Anna Ticknor established a society that presented educational opportunities to women to study at home. Communication, teaching and learning all took place using printed materials sent through the mail.

10K over 24-year period.

In 1883, the first official recognition of correspondence education took place. Chautauqua College of Liberal Arts in New York granted degrees to students who successfully completed academic work through correspondence education and summer workshops.

In 1915, following a call by academicians to research the effectiveness of correspondence education vs. traditional education, the National

University Extension Association was formed.

Until 1910, the medium of mail was the dominant delivery system, but new technologies, such as the lantern slide and motion picture, emerged to provide

additional, visually-based options for correspondence study.

The most promising new technology that emerged between 1918 and 1946 was

instructional radio.

The federal government granted over 202 radio broadcasting licenses to colleges, universities and school boards. The technology failed toattract a large audience.

New research conducted on correspondence study during the early 1950's facilitated growth of this

medium's knowledge base.

1956 – Gale Childs studied the application of TV instruction in combination with correspondence study. Concludes that

TV instruction is an instrument for transmitting instruction, not a method in itself.

Research and Assessment

Research and AssessmentThe success of the University of Wisconsin's Correspondence Study Unit also fostered acceptance of correspondence education.

 

In 1958, a UWCU report stated that the correspondence unit:

• Offers nearly 450 courses in nearly 150 areas of learning

• Teaches 12,000 active students annually

• Gives personal instruction on more than 80,000 assignments

• Works with the Foreign Service Institute to teach Immigration

• Law & Visa Operation to foreign service officers and the U.S.

• Armed Forces Institute to teach 200 correspondence courses

In the 1960’s & 1970’s – Escalating costs of traditional education, mobile population, growth of

career-oriented activities lead to renewed interest in DE.

• 1963 – Instructional TV Fixed Service (ITSF) reserves selected transmission frequencies for

educational instruction.• 1967 – Corporation of Public Broadcasting.• 1969 – The British Open University established as a degree-

granting institution. Utilizes TV courses as well as correspondence methods. (200K)

• 1970 – Coastline Community College begins distributing telecourses, becoming the first “virtual

college” in the US.• 1971 – New Your State’s Empire State College opens. First

open university in US, utilized DE.• 1971 – First emails are sent.• 1978 – First computer Bulletin Board Systems

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, cable and satellite television came into use.

Women fueled much of the growth. 67% of participants.

•Changes in the women’s position within the family

•Political & social changes

•Tech. Changes in the work place

•Economic necessity

•Job market & new job opportunities

The advent of the Internet and digital applications in the 1990’s, combined with changing demographics of the distance education learner, added a whole

new dimension to distance education.

These new technologies bring educational opportunity to the non-traditional student, and the lure of economic prosperity to higher educational institutions.

Technology and the Internet

The Rise of the Tele-course

Most agree the first true educational television program was Sunrise Semester, based in Chicago. From 1959 into the early Sixties, Sunrise Semester featured a single broadcaster, a teacher, standing before a class with a camera shooting over the heads of the students.

Yet the effort was not economically sustainable.

Here we come to the central question for educational media. Lacking government backing, how can educational media ventures pay their own way?

A two-year task force (1970-1972) to design the television course of the future, by Coast Community College vice chancellor, Dr.

Bernard Luskin defined a telecourse as

a complete course of study, not adjunct curricula like a single movie, filmstrip, slide show, audiotape, or vinyl

record. Students are separated from the teacher, standing or sitting before a camera in a classroom

or studio somewhere else, in real time or not.

Definition of DE

Luskin applied a relatively simple business model that still has value. Colleges and universities using the telecourse would pay a licensee fee to the telecourse distributor, which paid telecourse producers, copyright to be negotiated.

Using this model, Coastline Community College, arranged for classes with top instructors to be broadcast by public television station KOCE to colleges, universities and libraries in Orange County. Having no physical campus, Coastline was the first "virtual college."

Money Must be Made

Dallas Community College started producing pre-packaged tele-courses on video tape for export to other colleges. Their vision called for students choosing from a menu of instructional material that they could view any time, "video on demand"

in preference over "appointment TV.“

They evolved a policy of producing tele-courses that could hold

up year after year, now called an "evergreen" title because

the material stays fresh through many seasons.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery

The California model spread across the country, repeated during the Eighties in Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Florida.

PBS settled on being a provider by satellite of adjunct educational content, single programs and series like Bill Nye: The Science Guy, which local PBS stations can buy outright or license to air at specified times for use by local schools and colleges.

“Tele-courses” Evolve and Grow

Today, about 240 consortiums of public and private educational and creative enterprises in the U.S. are producing tele-courses, licensed by about a thousand colleges and universities using the material as a regular part of their degree programs.

Advent of Educational Pay TV

“More Money”

"Pay TV" services have gained a large market share by delivering educational content. Two world champions in educational TV content production are Jones International and Discovery Communications.

Jones International

Glenn Jones bought his first Colorado cable TV system in 1967 using $400 borrowed against his Volkswagen. He’s built a global cable casting empire by organizing public limited partnerships to raise more than $1 billion in capital to acquire of local cable systems.

In 1987, Jones launched Mind Extension University, M/EU, a cable channel carrying varied educational programming, much of it for participating colleges and universities.

In 1997, M/EU was re-branded as Knowledge TV for carriage in the US and Europe as a source of programs for college students and adult home learners who want to extend their minds. Jones seems to be putting all his eggs into the Knowledge TV basket.

A rival pay TV service is The Discovery Channel, founded in 1985. Discovery based its business case on deftly targeting the highest common denominator among subscribers. Think advertising.

This effort broke ground by proving that ideas are profitable if backed by sound business principles.

Discovery reached seven million U.S. households in its very first year of operations. Its audience has grown to over 60 million cable and satellite viewers worldwide. Discovery recently launched derivative programming services with The Learning Channel.

Cable in the Classroom

Cable companies provide content that teachers can record and replay, royalty free, to educate students

from kindergarten through high school where “Cable in the Classroom” reaches more than

90 percent of the public primary and secondary schools in the United States.

Interactive Distance Learning

The biggest barrier to the success of educational media has been the difficulties of students interacting effectively with instructors, an ability inherent in the live classroom. 

 Answering this need in the early days,

Coast College set a precedent in the Seventies by buying 15 answering machines

to record students' messages.

In the early Nineties, U.S. universities started giving students access to the Internet.

The use of e-mail became so common among students and instructors that

voicemail was demoted to secondary status.

The explosive growth of the Internet, in fact, has changed the essential character of delivering

educational content to remote students. The terms "distance learning" and "telematics" were coined

to describe the process.

The Internet is becoming the medium of choice for educators, since it provides all the elements vital for distance learning:

Immediate online access to:

• Vast libraries of research materials.

• On-demand delivery of video, text, & graphics.

•Real-time interaction among instructors & students.

Video Arts (co-founded by Monty Python veteran John Cleese) has created a multimedia division producing CD-ROMs, & moving into "self-learning" packages for delivery over the Internet.

Whether the target markets is educational institutions, organizations, or the growing audience of folks at home committed to lifelong learning, the educational media business will keep growing.

As speed improves, more information will be

delivered over the Internet

We live in an increasingly interdependent, information-based, knowledge-driven economy.

Those who can use the new media to learn whatever they want and need, are the best prepared to take

advantage of the media systems emerging over the next few decades.

Those lacking deep media literacy may be left behind

Knowledge is power in any societyKnowledge is power in any society, , but in the new knowledge economy, but in the new knowledge economy,

ignorance is bondageignorance is bondage

The best way to develop markets for educational media products is

to do the groundwork now to develop a large base of educated people

who want and need educational content.

Individuals and companies that invest in the educational media marketplace today

will be the best positioned tomorrow

What Comes Next?

DETAG’S ROLL?Distance Education will take many forms in the Future

DETAG is in a position:• to support the division & its members• to lead and to encourage them• to provide vision & excitement

Use of Technology must become second nature for Students & Staff as we move into the 21st Century

DETAG ShouldConsider Ways to Effectively Market

DE and Technology to the Division

Many departments furnish “SERVICE” more than “EDUCATION”

Might we promote e-Service ?

Information in this presentation was gathered from the following websites:

o http://www.pbs.org/als/dlweek/history/1960.htm o http://www.seniornet.org/edu/art/history.htmlo http://www.media-visions.com/ed-distlrn1.htmlo http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Spring01/deClair/history.html