A Historical Overview of Online Learning

Distance learning has been around for a long time. Since the 1700's in fact. Wikipedia credits Caleb Philip's short hand course as the first endeavor. He sent lessons weekly to his students. Of course, this was all hand written and sent via post. And by the same methods The University of London became the first university to offer degrees for distance learners in 1858. Things are much different today. In the mid 1980's companies and institutions first started using computers to instruct their employees and students. However, in the 1980's very few people had computers at home and the Internet was not around to provide delivery of the instructor's data to them anyway. Employees and students sat at solitary stations in labs, pre-loaded with the instructional information. This means of teaching of course evolved over time, as did the computers being used as a teaching tool. Simultaneously, something was cooking in the labs of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). They were breathing life into a new means of communicating between distant computers, known as DARPANET. That project would become the Internet.

Education, like every other sector of our lives was profoundly affected by the massive revolution and change that the Internet brought with it in the 1990's. In large part, distance learning has become Online learning, or E-Learning, as the rise of the Internet made the distribution of coursework and materials to distant students faster, cheaper and easier than before. Early on it had its struggles and skeptics, but now the leading online learning institution has more than 200,000 students and altogether there are an estimated 3.5 million students enrolled in online education programs. Some online educators are even setting up virtual campuses in 3 dimensional social environments! Online education has come to be accepted by employers and academics alike. It is now seen for what it is, the new and improved form of distance learning and a part of its rich and long accepted history. The world is also aware that Online learning improves upon it's predecessor by providing greater ability for course design and student mentor interaction. Also, learn how a degree can advance your career.