History of Distance Learning

The distance education model remained relatively unchanged until the early 1900s, which saw the introduction of new audiovisual technology. Despite the fact that reliable long-distance telephone service was available, the telephone never became a large part of the distance learning method until the introduction of teleconferencing in the 1980s. By 1920, many schools and extension programs were making use of slides and motion pictures to improve the learning process. This method of teaching was especially effective for the military, when used for training around the time of World War II, and even more so when the television was introduced into the process. The military’s success with using audiovisual learning spurred a growth in that direction within the educational community, and early studies showed that classroom television learning was about as effective as traditional face-to-face learning, with students doing equally well on exams.

The next big success for distance education came when the Open University was established in the United Kingdom in 1969. The Open University stood apart for using television and radio as its primary delivery methodologies, thus placing it in the forefront of applying emerging technologies to learning. Even today, the Open University is considered one of the leading educational institutions to use a large-scale application of technology to facilitate distance learning. The Open University went a long way toward earning credibility for the concept of distance learning, and its model has been copied throughout the world.

A number of factors contributed to the rise in popularity of distance learning in America in the 1960s and 1970s. The success of the Open University gave those institutions interested in offering distance learning programs new confidence in the idea, and offered them a methodology to follow. A national trend of rapidly escalating costs of traditional resident education helped make the cheaper distance learning education a much more attractive option. The movement was also aided by an increasingly mobile American population that couldn’t commit to the rigid schedule or location of traditional-style education.

The history of distance education has taken a huge leap forward in the past few years in particular. The introduction of the Internet revolutionized the entire distance learning paradigm. The shift from delayed to instantaneous communication across any distance changed the way distance learning courses were taught. It was now possible to support a global student population, to teach distance learning synchronously, to share lessons in a variety of multimedia formats, and to remain connected to students in a way only face-to-face learning could provide before. The Internet created the world of distance learning as it exists today.

In 2009, the Sloan Consortium completed its annual report about online distance learning, “Learning on Demand: Online Education in the United States.” It found that over 4.6 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2008 term. That was a 17 percent increase in the number of students taking online courses from the previous year. In contrast to that, the overall increase in the number of higher education students was 1.2 percent. That means that higher education students are turning with increasing frequency to online learning to meet their educational needs. More than one in four college and university students now take at least one course online. According to a 2009 meta-study from the Department of Education, students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction. Distance education opportunities continue to grow at an increasing rate and show no signs of slowing. Whatever the future of education, distance learning is sure to play a huge part in it.