Chapter 3 -- Distance Education: The Roots of Cyberschools

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Distance education is part of the answer to the quest for affordable, accessible higher education. While it won't solve the world's education delivery problems, electronically-delivered distance education can help.

Evolution of the Revolution

Most experts agree that distance education began in 18th century Europe. Students mailed written exercises to their professors and, in turn, the professors graded and send the exercises back to the students by mail.

Centuries passed. Radio, television, computers and the Internet arrived. These technologies can turn every living room on the globe into a classroom.

A Worldwide Phenomenon

Electronically-delivered distance education now is a fact worldwide.

The United Kingdom's Open University (OU) is hailed as creating the international distance education model. OU opened its electronic doors in 1969 to all who wanted education in that country. It has no physical campus, but it enrolls more than 150,000 students in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe. One of OU's largest contributions to distance education is its use of radio and TV to teach.

The United States' Experience

In the United States, Chicago Citywide College and New York University were among the first traditional education institutions to experiment with what are called telecourses. Commercial television stations experimented with broadcasting them. For various reasons they dropped the practice.

In the 1960s, federal legislation in the United States created public television. Universities and community colleges began running their own television stations and producing telecourses. The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, created the Public Broadcasting System network (PBS).

Building on the Past

As we enter the 21st century, our challenge will be to build upon the insights and experiences gained from the past. The private sector can help. Alternative education delivery should not solely be at the mercy of government funding priorities. Survival strategies can include private-sector partners. Later on in this book I talk about how.

Also in this chapter

The importance of content;

Social and demographic changes;

Australia's university-level distance education;

A listing of more than 20 open universities around the world;

New York University's Sunrise Semester and NBC's Atomic Age Physics;

The Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting telecourse project.

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