Education Online

Vitual Education Online

Last Updated Oct 5, 2008 08:58 PM

1. FROM CORRESPONDENCE COURSES TO VIRTUAL SCHOOLS

First developed in England in 1840, distance learning programs became a regular part of academic learning in the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and Japan within a few decades. By the 1900s, the first department of correspondence teaching was established at the University of Chicago. Academic distance education was mainly directed towards adult learners unable to attend a regular college. Several states also created public distance learning high school programs for teenagers in remote areas, such as Indiana in 1929 and North Dakota in 1935. In addition, private, profit-making schools taught vocational subjects by mail.

In the 1970s, the desire to extend education to more people unable to attend regular colleges, coupled with the availability of new technologies such as audio and video materials, led to an increase in distance education. According to a survey by the U.S. Department of Education (http://nces.ed.gov), by the mid-1980s more than 300,000 students took academic distance courses, by 1995 that number rose to 753,000. In 1995, one third of higher education institutions in the United States offered some form of distance learning. Taking distance education courses exclusively, students could complete approximately 690 different degrees and 170 certificates. In actuality, 3,430 degrees and 1,970 certificates were awarded. By 1998, 44% of American institutions of higher education offered some distance courses, and 8%, or 180 graduate schools and over 150 undergraduate colleges offered distance degree programs, with an increasing proportion being web-based. Most of them were geared towards graduate and first professional levels in management, health professions, education and engineering (Distance Learning in Higher Education, 2000). These courses, while still marketed mainly to traditional adult distance learners, now also target professionals such as teachers and enrolled college students looking to replace some traditional classes with online courses, usually because they work part-time and need flexible hours. It is estimated that by 2002, over 2.2 million students in American colleges will take distance courses (Moore, 2000).

Despite the availability of other technologies, such as video-conferencing, the Internet is becoming the technology of choice in distance education. By 1998, of the 44% of American institutions of higher education providing distance courses, 60% used asynchronous web-courses, and 19% synchronous web courses, with some using both forms. At the same time, the use of video-based technology stagnated (Carnevale 2000). The use of the net is spurred by two technological breakthroughs that will give much quicker access: wireless Internet access on campus (Bluetooth), and Lucent’s new split-light fiber-optic cables.

The role of distance education was not so much to challenge the structure of higher learning, but to extend the traditional university to people unable to take courses for a variety of reasons, such as geographic isolation, physical handicaps or because they worked or raised children. In the United States in the early 1990s, about two-thirds of the audience for adult distance education was female, and 80% of them had children (Matthews, 1999). Since the mid-1990s, the target population has also included conventional college students who are seeking some independent study. In addition, students in other countries take a growing number of such online courses. Traditional distance learning exchanges by mail took too long and often were too uncertain to make courses by mail accessible to a large number of students abroad. The Internet now allows a student anywhere with a stable access to a phone line to take online courses.

Distance education for K-12 students developed more slowly than distance education for college students. In 1929, Nebraska created a degree-granting public high school program taught by correspondence, targeted at isolated rural students. North Dakota followed in 1935, as did a few other states including Texas and Indiana. The growth of the home schooling movement in the 1980s created a demand for distance courses suited for children and teenagers, which increasingly is being met by online instruction. Online instruction also has become an important instructional tool in public schools. Since the 1990s, there has been a sustained effort to promote computer literacy in schools and use the Internet for K-12 distance education. The Association for Educational Communication and Technology reported that more than $10 billion has been spent to put computer equipment and wiring in public schools (K-12) to enable students to connect to the Internet though critics of e-learning argue there is no reason to believe that all of the technology in schools will actually help students improve their performance in the classroom (Mendez-Wilson, 2000). But regulatory issues, opposition by the public school system, and fears that, unlike adults, children and teenagers need face-to-face instruction, have limited the growth of virtual K-12 courses and especially virtual high school degrees. By 2000, a small number of high schools offered and accepted online courses within a curriculum consisting mainly of traditional courses.

Not-for-profit institutions had traditionally provided academic instruction, while commercial providers focused on vocational training, awarding certificates and the odd unaccredited Bachelor degree. The Internet has spurred the growth of for-profit online courses and tutorials for adult education, corporate training, workforce training, and tutorials for students in schools and colleges (Moore, 2000). Some now offer credit-bearing courses and degrees traditionally offered by public or private schools and colleges. The entry of these companies into the academic market is controversial.

The popularity of the medium has led somewhat to an inflated terminology, with some schools proudly calling themselves “virtual schools" after only creating a homepage. Ideally, the expression “virtual” for schools and colleges should be restricted to institutions offering degree programs exclusively online, be it as an independent institution or as a learning network (a consortium of schools offering a broad range of online instruction.)

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