technology

The lack of Internet access is a large impediment to much of the developing world’s ability to engage in e-learning.

UNESCO issues an annual report on “Education for All” (EFA) which addresses the aim of universal education globally. In 2008, it noted that, even though over one billion people now have access to the Web, “the Internet remains inaccessible to most children, youth and adults in the countries that are struggling the most to achieve EFA.”

Excerpt from Assessing Student Learning in the Knowledge Age: The Jones International University Assessment Model by Joyce A. Scott and Robert W. Fulton:

“…the JIU technological infrastructure has facilitated frequent and responsive interaction between student and teacher, permitted more timely feedback, encouraged student-to-student interactions, documented student learning, and supported collection, analysis and dissemination of data such as surveys, student success reports and institutional research.

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.