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A Synoptic E-learning Timeline
1922
Pennsylvania State College broadcasts
courses over the radio.
1934
The State University of Iowa begins
televised course broadcasts in subjects including oral hygiene and identifying
star constellations.
1946
The University of South Africa begins
a nationwide distance education program.
1950
The Ford Foundation begins offering
grants to develop televised educational programs.
1968
Stanford University creates the Stanford
Instructional Television Network. The first credit and professional
education courses are transmitted to school, university and industry
sites worldwide.
1974
John Bear, a distance education expert
and proponent, authors the first edition of Bear's Guide, which aims
to educate consumers about the opportunities available in non-traditional
and distance education.
1975
The University of Mid-America, a consortium
of nine Midwestern universities, is founded to produce and deliver courses
via video.
1976
The University of Phoenix, the first
American university to offer course work online, opens.
1979
The California College for Health Sciences
begins offering correspondence programs for healthcare professionals.
1982
The National University Teleconferencing
Network, a consortium of 66 universities and the Smithsonian Institution,
begins to offer online non-credit courses via satellite.
1983
Control Data opens Plato Homelink, an online educational service and
IBM creates the Interactive Satellite
Education Network, a corporate training network using satellite television.
Time names the computer as the "Man
of the Year."
1984
National Technological University opens,
offering videotape and satellite graduate engineering courses.
The Electronic University Network,
founded in 1983, offers its first online courses using proprietary software
for DOS and Commodore 64 computers.
1985
After many years of difficulty, including
going into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, The Union for Experimenting Colleges
and Universities earns North Central Accreditation.
Paul Levinson and Tina Vozick create
Connected Education, a program of online graduate courses taught by
professors at The New School for Social Research.
1987
Glenn Jones starts Mind Extension University,
a cable network broadcasting courses and full degree programs (such
as Colorado State University MBA) developed by community colleges and
universities.
1989
University of Phoenix starts its online
program.
1992
The Electronic University Network changes
its focus and begins assisting universities develop online virtual campuses
on America Online. Programs include a Ph.D. in Integral Studies from
the California Institute of Integral Studies.
The George Washington University starts
its distance M.A. in Educational Technology Leadership using ME/U cable
television and a computer bulletin board system.
1993
International University College is founded by Glenn Jones (known for his Mind Extension University cable network). IUC will be a true virtual university offering exclusively online courses and degrees.
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln
begins an online doctoral program in Educational Leadership and Higher
Education.
The Graduate School of America, a for-profit
distance education institution, is founded.
1996
Duke University begins its Global Executive
M.B.A. program which combines online technology and sessions on-campus
and at various locations throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
1997
California Virtual University, a consortium
of nearly 100 California colleges and universities, opens with over
1500 online courses.
1999
The U.S. Department of Education establishes the Distance Learning
Education Demonstration Program which serves as a pilot
program of 15 post-secondary schools,
systems and consortia permitted to offer federal financial aid for distance
learning programs.
Learning portals, including HungryMinds,
Click2Learn, Learn2, eCollege, Blackboard and others emerge on the landscape.
In his Comdex keynote, John Chambers,
Cisco CEO, declares, "Education over the Internet is going to be
so big it is going to make e-mail usage look like a rounding error."
2000
eLearning emerges as the dot-com term
for distance education.
Concord University School of Law, the
nation’s first online law school, is established.
Billionaire Michael Saylor announces
that he has donated $100 million toward the creation of an online university
that will offer an Ivy League level of education for free.
The National Education Association
(NEA) and Blackboard Inc. releases a research study examining quality
benchmarks for distance learning in higher education entitled "Quality
On the Line."
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