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First university-based distance education
The first correspondence education at a university was opened by Rainey Harper with the creation of the extension program at the University of Chicago.
Source: A Century of Distance Education in the United States by Michael Grahame Moore, p. 6
Source for image: https://grahamschool.uchicago.edu/about -
First television broadcast educational program
The State University of Iowa offered the first educational program by broadcast television. -
Articulated Instructional Media (AIM) project
Charles Wedemeyer's AIM project laid the foundations for future distance learning at universities. This initial project was based at the University of Wisconsin and was funded by the Carnegie Foundation. The work done on this project led to the Open University of the UK.
Source: A Century of Distance Education in the United States by Michael Grahame Moore, p. 8.
Image Source: http://www.halloffame.outreach.ou.edu/1998/wedemeyer.html -
Douglas Engelbart's "The Mother of All Demos"
Douglas Engelbart demonstrated many of the technologies that are used in modern online distance learning, including the computer mouse, video conferencing, teleconferencing, hypertext, word processing, hypermedia, object addressing and dynamic file linking, bootstrapping, and a collaborative real-time editor. See the demonstration here:
Source: Doug Engelbart Institute -
Cyclops System at Open University UK
The CYCLOPS system, developed at the Open University UK, offers multi-site tutoring through a shared whiteboard system with voice conferencing and downloaded graphics.
Source: McConnell, D. and Sharples, M. (1983). Distance teaching by Cyclops: an educational evaluation of the Open University’s telewriting system. British Journal of Educational Technology, 14(2), pp. 109–126.
as cited here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virtual_learning_environments -
First web-based distance courses
The first web-based courses were offered in the 1990s. Possibly, the first was Commentary on Art, taught by Jerrold Maddox at Penn State University beginning in January 1995.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_virtual_learning_environments -
Blackboard, Inc is founded
Blackboard Inc was founded by Michael Chasen and Matt Pitinsky. Blackboard Learn was the first widely adopted LMS or learning management system. Many LMSs include video conferencing, document sharing, discussion boards, media embedding, and other elements that impact course functionality and learner participation.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackboard_Inc. -
OpenCourseWare Project
MIT launches OCW, making course content available for free on the web.
Source: https://ocw.mit.edu/about/ -
Khan Academy founded
Sal Khan founded Khan Academy, a growing collection of free online educational videos.
Source: History of Khan Academy -
Online education is a disruptive innovation
In "The Innovative University" Clayton Christiansen classifies online education as a disruptive innovation and predicts that traditional university models will be drastically changed (and in some cases, replaced) by the trends in education technology.
Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/04/28/clay-christensen-sticks-predictions-massive-college-closures -
First MOOCs
Led by Stanford (Coursera) and MIT (edX), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are offered. These courses offer free content to large numbers of students--hundreds of thousands of students can enroll in a single course.
Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6FvJ6jMGHU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYwTA5RA9eU&t=210s -
Online enrollment increasing in higher ed
In 2014, 28% of degree seeking students were taking at least some of their courses online with 14% exclusively distance. Online enrollment has been increasing every year, in contrast to overall enrollment in degree seeking programs, which has been falling steadily since 2008.
Source: http://onlinelearningsurvey.com/reports/onlinereportcard.pdf
