The Roots of Distance Education

Correspondence courses, developed in the late 19th century, are early examples of distance education in the U.S. But the first distance learner to receive full university credit probably did so in the 18th century, when a homebound student on a remote agricultural estate made informal arrangements with a university lecturer to receive course notes and textbooks by mail and completed examinations in writing. The lecturer likely pocketed an “incentive” fee from the student, and university officials were never aware the student on the class roll never attended class.

As social, demographic, and economic changes shaped both the 19th and 20th centuries, some leaders in education worked to fashion new ways to bring education to those who wanted it.

One of the most outstanding higher education advancements in 19th century America was U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s 1862 signing of the Morrill Act, which initiated development of a system of state-supported universities intended to make college education more affordable and available to U.S. citizens. The act provided a 19th century bricks-and-mortar solution to the education distribution dilemma in one part of the world.

The 1887 Hatch Act established agricultural experiment stations, followed in 1914 by the Smith-Lever Act, which authorized county extension agents for agriculture and home economics. These were some of the first attempts to take education directly from state universities to adult learners. Today, arguably, the most successful efforts to bring higher education to more people at affordable costs involve distance education. Initially, telecourses or televised instruction proved to be one of the most promising of the technology-based distance education alternatives.

Advances in communications technologies such as cable television, fiber optics, microwave, wireless telecommunications systems, satellites, microcomputer networks, fax machines, videocassette recorders, and the Internet have allowed telecourse and courseware design and delivery to become even more effective. Now the explosion of the use of mobile phones, PDAs, blogs, Second Life, Facebook, Twitter and electronic devices such as Amazon.com’s Kindle and their probable progeny open up a host of new opportunities.

High-speed cable TV modems capable of delivering TV broadcast and Internet services, telephone lines with supercharged asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) or integrated services digital network (ISDN) service, and satellite transmissions beamed directly to homes with telephone and Internet return links are now well established as viable infrastructure for delivery of distance education. With these tools, the potential exists to turn every living room on the globe into a real-time, interactive classroom.

Click here to find out more about the history of distance education.