A+Timeline

Presented by Group 6 - A. Cornelius and P. Markey
=History of Online Learning in the United States=

Online learning has evolved and changed along with the development of technology. Starting with the establishment of the Pony Express, distance learning in the form of correspondence study courses transformed education and made it more accessible to people geographically distant from colleges and universities. As new technologies such as radio, television, video, personal computers and the Internet were invented, they were adapted for use in both the physical and the virtual classroom.

This wiki attempts to give the viewer a short history of distant learning developments in the United States and to show some of the more significant technological advances that made online learning possible.

Humorous YouTube video explains __**Distance Learning Online**__

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Timeline

 * 1820** (circa) - English mathematician, Charles Babbage begins work on a different type of engine, a computing machine.


 * 1833** - Babbage proposes the analytical engine, a predecessor of the modern computer.
 * 1860** - The Pony Express was founded by William H. Russell, William B. Waddell, and Alexander Majors, leading way for faster communication by mail.


 * 1873** - The Society to Encourage Studies at Home founded in Boston, MA.


 * 1883 -1891** - Chautauqua College of Liberal Arts, N.Y. was established and conferred degrees upon students taking courses through mail correspondence.


 * 1896** - [|Indiana's Central University] (now the University of Indiana) offered bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees earned entirely through correspondence courses.


 * 1922** - Pennsylvania State College broadcasts classes over the radio.


 * 1927** - Electronic television system invented by [|Philo Taylor Farnsworth].


 * 1934** - The [|University of Iowa] broadcasts the first televised education courses - in oral hygiene and identifying star constellations.


 * 1937** - The Turing machine, a "universal" computer that uses symbols instead of letters, is invented by British mathematician [|Alan Turing].




 * 1946** - [|ENIAC], the first vacuum tube computer, is built for the U.S. military.


 * 1950** - The [|Ford Foundation] offers grants to develop televised educational programs.


 * 1950** - [|WOI-TV] goes on the air; is the first educational television station, affiliated with Iowa State College.


 * 1951** - Case-Western University produces over 500 educational television programs.

university and industry sites worldwide.
 * 1968** - Stanford University creates the [|Stanford Instructional Television Network] which transmitted professional education courses to school,


 * 1969** - ARPAnet (the first ) invented for secure military communications and defense-related research.


 * 1971** - microprocessor invented by Faggin, Hoff and Mazor, engineers for INTEL; computers became smaller, easier to use and affordable.


 * 1974** - ARPA forms Telenet, the first commercial version of ARPAnet for the general public's use.


 * 1975** - The University of Mid-America, a consortium of nine Midwestern universities, is founded to produce and deliver courses by video.


 * 1975** - The Altair 8800, the first home computer, is unveiled by Micro Instruments and Telemetry Systems. It is sold as a mail order kit for $397.00.


 * 1977** - Apple II becomes the first successful personal computer.
 * 1982** - The personal computer is named [|//Time// magazine's] [[image:1101830103_400.jpg width="61" height="73"]] Machine of the Year.


 * 1987** - [|The United States Distance Learning Association] (USDLA) was established as the first nonprofit Distance Learning association in the United States to support Distance Learning research, development and praxis across the complete arena of education, training and communications.


 * 1989** - The [| University of Phoenix] establishes their "online campus," the [| first to offer online bachelor's and master's degrees]. It becomes the [| "largest private university in North America."]


 * 1989** - World Wide Web (html) and Internet protocol (http) created by Tim Berners-Lee.


 * 1991** - The [|World Wide Web] is launched to the public August 6, 1991. [|Tim Berners-Lee], a scientist at the European Partial Physics Laboratory (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland develops the Web as a research tool.


 * 1992** - [|The Asynchronous Learning Networks] (ALN) established by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to bring education alternatives to people unable to attend campus-based classes.


 * 1993 ** - The Graduate School of America (TGSA), now called [|Capella University], is founded by Stephen Shank and Dr. Harold Abel.


 * 1993** - [|Jones International University] becomes the first university "to exist completely online. "

**1993** - [|Stanford Instructional Television Network] (SITN) recognized as "Most Outstanding Distance Education Network in the U.S. for 1993" by the United States Distance Learning Association ([|USDLA]).


 * 1994** - Vice President Al Gore makes a speech where he coins the term "[|Information Superhighway]."

**1994** - [|CompuHigh] is founded. It claims to be the first online high school.


 * 1995** - [|Drexel's College of Information Science and Technology] (now know as the //iSchool// at Drexel University) offered its first online program. Drexel University Online is a member of the [|Sloan Consortium] (Sloan-C), which is dedicated to integrating online education into the mainstream of higher education.


 * [[image:blackboard_logo width="85" height="82"]]1997 -** Blackboard founded.


 * 1998** - [|U.S. Department of Education Demonstration Program] established to determine the statutory and regulatory requirements that should be altered to provide greater access to distance education programs. In authorizing the Program, the Congress recognized the importance of the growing trend toward distance education as an option to on-campus study and its potential for increasing access for some groups of students.


 * 2000** - Over 70% of United States public higher education institutions offer some type of distance education courses. Online instruction is growing rapidly among these institutions.


 * 2002** - Copyright fair use exemptions updated to accommodate online learning environments through the implementation of the TEACH Act.


 * 2003** - The [|North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL)], a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing K-12 online education, is "launched as a formal corporate entity."


 * 2005** - Questia Media adds an online course management system to its already extensive virtual library, merging online resources with online instruction.


 * 2005** - Blackboard and WebCT, the two leading online course management systems, merge. Blackboard now serves 80-90 percent of the online learning market.


 * 2005** - The rapidly growing for-profit higher education sector now comprises 1/3 of online education programs.


 * 2005** - According to a study by the Sloan Consortium, 63 percent of colleges offering undergraduate, face-to-face instruction also offer online courses and 65 percent of those offering graduate courses in person also offer online courses. Most institutions reported using the core faculty to teach their online courses.


 * 2006** - According to a study by the Sloan Consortium, about 3.2 million people, roughly 17 percent of all higher education students, enrolled in at least one online course this year.


 * 2006** - The United States congress drops the requirement that online, degree-granting institutions offer at least half of their courses in traditional, "brick and mortar" classrooms.


 * 2006** - State of Michigan adds the completion of an online course as a high school graduation requirement for all students entering high school in the 2006-2007 school year.


 * 2007** - Enrollment in at least one online higher education course rises to include 20 percent of American students.


 * 2009** - According to a study by the Sloan Consortium, about 5.6 million people enrolled in at least one online course this year.


 * 2009** - Texas State Technical College first to offer an Associates Degree program completely administered in the virtual reality environment Second Life.


 * 2009** - US Department of Education study finds that students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction. Those who took "blended" courses, with a mix of online and face-to-face instruction, performed best of all.


 * 2010** - According to a study by the Sloan Consortium, 63 percent of higher education institutions believe that providing online education is critical to the long-term success of their institutions.


 * 2015** - Estimated that 12-15 percent of all learners will be fully online learners.