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Pitman Shorthand training program. Students - generally women who wanted to learn shorthand - mailed exercises to the Phonographic Institute in Cincinnati, OH.
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Society to Encourage Studies at Home, Boston-based, offered correspondence classes for women primarily in Home Economics. They eventually served about 10,000 students. (Casey, 46)
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Chautauqau, NY, long a proponent of adult education, started a correspondence program in 1882, leading to "Correspondence University" in 1883. (Casey, 46)
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Colliery School of Mines in Wilkes-Barre, PA, offered correspondence courses teaching mine safety. Later this becomes the International Correspondence Schools, which trained iron workers and railroad workers in addition to miners. By 1923, ICS had enrolled over 2.5 million! (Casey, 46)
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Cornell offered 3 credit courses by correspondence. (Moore, 6)
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In 1921 the first educational radio licenses were granted. By 1946 over 200 colleges had obtained such licenses! In fact, in 1923, 10% of all broadcast institutions were owned by educational institutions! But, only one for-credit college level course had been offered via radio by 1940. (Casey, 46)
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DE proved to be popular. By 1926 approximately 2,000,000 students were enrolled in correspondence courses! (Moore, 6)
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University of Iowa broadcast courses on television. (Casey, 46)
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In 1969, British Open University was established (Casey, 47). In 1974 – The German FernUniversitat established. (Casey, 47)
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Rudiments of the internet used in the military. (Moore, 16)
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The first fully televised college courses, done by Coastline Community College in California. (Casey, 47)
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Established in this year, the University of Phoenix offers all its classes through DE. (Casey, 48)
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The World Wide Web, first conceived by the military in the late 1960's, now is able to go world wide. (Casey, 48)
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The growth of the internet was explosive! By 2002, only 11 years after its development, 66% of Americans were accessing the web. The implications for DE were obvious; many more people could access many more things, and much more easily! (Moore, 16)
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As would be expected, there was competition to create programs to fill the needs of online instruction. In 2005, Blackboard and WebCT merged, under the Blackboard label, offering multiple services for educational institutions. (Casey, 48)
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All information in this timeline was derived from the following two articles: Casey, Denise M. (Mar/Apr 2008). A journey to legitimacy: The historical development of education through technology. TechTrends, 52(2), 45-51. Moore, Michael G. (2003). From Chautauqua to the virtual university: A century of distance education in the United States. Information Series N. 393.
