A Short History of OLL

Perhaps the earliest model we have of Distance Learning began in 1858 when the London University established their “External Degree” programs for overseas students.

In 1873 Anna Ticknor established the Society to Encourage Studies at Home, based in Boston, MA. Ticknor’s society was aimed at educating women across class boundaries. Thousands participated, and Ticknor became known as the Mother of American correspondence study.

Following shortly behind, Columbia University began to offer Distance Learning options in the 1920's. The first educational radio broadcast lecture was given by Herman Harrell Horne, of Harvard, in 1924. It is estimated that over 200,000 listeners tuned in to Horne’s Philosophy lecture. Into the 1930’s other schools began offering courses by radio and courses via television by the 1960's.

“Most agree the first true educational television program was Sunrise Semester, based in Chicago. From 1959 into the early Sixties, Sunrise Semester featured a single broadcaster, a teacher, standing before a class with a camera shooting over the heads of the students. Yet the effort was not economically sustainable, and the effort soon ended.” (Ken Freed )

In 1970, California funded a task force to create an educational television course, or “telecourse.” On the cutting edge of this effort was Coast Community College's Vice Chancellor, Dr. Bernard Luskin.

Some of the greatest challenges they faced were the issues of answering student questions, giving and grading tests, and reporting student progress to the school. Additionally, the task force had to determine how the curricula would follow established academic standards.

Racing through the gates was the Open University, started in 1971 in the UK. The Open University quickly adopted many of the correspondence, radio and televised techniques and established itself as an industry leader.

Dallas Community College also jumped into the Distance Learning world in 1971. However, Dallas took a very different approach, they produced videotaped courses and sold them to other colleges. The primary idea was that packaged instructional material could be viewed anytime, rather than being limited to the day and time broadcast.

The Public Broadcasting Service jumped on this trend and also began producing “telecourses.” Their smash hit teacher: "Big Bird."

It is estimated that today there are about 240 groups in the U.S. producing telecourses. About a thousand colleges and universities are using the material as a regular part of their degree programs. K-12 institutions have also begun using this form of “packaged curriculum” to offer advanced courses, and others for which they don’t have scheduled time or facilities.

During the 1970’s, telecourse producers continued to struggle with their inability to offer Distance students an interactive experience with instructors. In a bold move, Coast Community College set a precedent by purchasing 15 telephone answering machines to record students' messages for telecourse instructors, who replied in a day or so. In the 1970’s this pricey investment in technology averaged about $900 each machine. Despite the cost, so many students used this technology that the answering machine quickly became a standard in the management of telecourses.

With the Internet boom of the 1990s, email soon replaced the usefulness of the answering machine. Shortly thereafter, the telecourse, too, began to be replaced by Internet delivery.

One of the disadvantages of using the Internet for course delivery, compared to telecourse, is the quality at which the material can be delivered. Waiting to download low-resolution video clips can be frustrating, when the TV can deliver a full program in living color.

Several organizations are now preparing the multimedia portion of their courses on CD-ROM to complement the online portion. The CD media makes larger files and media more available.

Today the largest Distance Learning student body in the world is part of UNISA, the University of South Africa, with more than 200,000 people enrolled worldwide.

Additionally, virtual K-12 schools are expanding at a rapid rate. A recent survey of 447 high schools and 345 school districts indicated that more than 50 percent of U.S. high schools are currently offering online courses or exploring them for the future.

In 2001, WestEd research reported that 50,000 K-12 students were enrolled in online programs. Estimates for 2003-04 school year are as high as 250,000. Estimates of College and University students enrolled in online courses soar into the millions.

Author David Butler suggests that Online Learning is growing at exponential rates: “Dramatic growth in online capacity continues to match exploding student demand for distance learning. Enrollment in distance-learning courses in 2002 is estimated at 23 million, up from 710,000 in just four years. Over 90-percent of traditional institutions now provide or plan to provide some kind of program through distance learning. The online education market is growing 40-percent a year and will, in just three years, grow 16 times, from $2.1 billion revenue in 2002 to $33.6 billion in 2005.”

Much of this material is an edited synopsis of Ken Freed's work "History of DL". Please see his work for a much more detailed analysis.