The History of Distance Learning

Most people believe that distance learning is only a modern phenomenon that appeared as the Internet grew in popularity. In truth, the idea of getting a distance education has actually been around for centuries. The first record of distance learning in the United States came from the city of Boston in 1728. The idea of this kind of education was originally based on the postal system, but the inherent limitations of a quick information transmission meant that the idea would need to be adjourned until modern technology caught up.

Over a century later, universities in England began offering degree programs that used distance learning, but these did not garner much popularity with students. It was not until the 1960s and 1970s that colleges and universities would return to the concept. At this time, the open university was created, a school that was able to depend upon the reliability of the modern postal system to finally make a distance education a possibility. Of course, everything changed with the invention of the Internet.

With information transmission and reception drastically improved to be almost in real time, the potential of an online university was just waiting to be developed. The first college to offer accredited online classes and degree programs was the Jones International University, which was founded in 1996 for this specific purpose. In the fifteen years that have passed, many other online university and college options have appeared, some with accreditation and some without. There are also differences between the universities, with some of the distance learning institutions being non-profit, like a traditional college, and others being in the business of making money. At the current writing, there is not yet an international regulation body to provide a framework for distance education that uses the Internet for online classes and degrees online.