history of online education

Three Centuries of Distance Learning

We will probably remember 2020 as the time when distance education exploded. But the infrastructure that enabled this expansion was years in the making.

These days students, teachers, professors, and parents are figuring out an awful lot about how distance learning works. But teaching and learning remotely is not a brand-new thing . As microbiologist Roy D. Sleator writes, it’s actually much older than Zoom, Google Classroom, or even the internet itself.

Sleator begins the history of distance learning in 1728. That’s when shorthand teacher Caleb Phillips bought an ad in the Boston Gazette promising that students “may by having the several lessons sent weekly to them, be as perfectly instructed as those that live in Boston.”

Despite Phillips’s forward thinking, Sleator writes, correspondence courses didn’t really catch on until the nineteenth century, when improvements to the postal service made them practical. The Pittman Shorthand program, established in Cincinnati in 1852, allowed students to mail in their work and, upon successful completion of the course, receive a certificate of expertise.

While clerical skills might seem like a natural for classes conducted through the mail, would-be secretaries weren’t the only ones to turn to correspondence courses. In 1890, the Colliery School of Mines created a correspondence course on mine safety. Over the three decades that followed, it evolved into the International Correspondence School, which offered courses by mail for iron and railroad workers as well as miners. By 1923, it had 2.5 million students.

But by that time, Sleator writes, mail was losing its place as the dominant method of long-distance communication. Live radio shows allowed educators to talk directly to students at home, even if the broadcast only went one way. By 1923, more than 10 percent of broadcast radio stations were owned by educational institutions.

And then, of course, there was television. By 1934, the University of Iowa was broadcasting televised courses. Other colleges followed suit.

Sleator writes that in the 1960s the Carnegie Foundation funded work by Charles Wedemeyer at the University of Wisconsin–Madison to figure out how to best reach students at a distance. This became the Articulated Instructional Media Project (AIM), which inspired the British Open University, established in 1969. Similar open universities, using radio and TV technologies, popped up in other countries, including Spain and Canada.

Back in the United States in the 1980s, the National Technological University started using satellite TV to deliver a combination of live and recorded course material. It also let students call their instructors by phone and get questions answered on air in real time.

Soon after that came the technology we associate with distance learning today—the World Wide Web. Jones International University, the first completely internet-based higher education institution accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, opened in 1993. It offered five bachelor’s and twenty-four master’s degree programs.

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From there, it wasn’t long until the rise of commercial online learning services like Blackboard and the adoption of “e-learning” across colleges and for some high school students as well.

In the decade since Sleator’s article was published, interest in distance learning has expanded. But that expansion surely pales in comparison with what’s happened just this spring.

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A History of Online Education

Evan Thompson

Contributing Writer

Learn about our editorial process .

Updated October 17, 2023 · 3 Min Read

The technology boom of the mid-1980s is most remembered for the first personal computer, but that era also saw another important creation: online learning.

Back then, it was sparsely used, mostly by business executives and a few postsecondary institutions. But today, it's become a cornerstone of education – and it preserved school during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Technological advancements have made online education accessible to people worldwide of all different backgrounds. The format is especially popular in the U.S., where about a third of the 20.6 million college students take online classes. Nearly every postsecondary institution in the U.S. offers at least one online program, ranging from non-degree degree programs to full Ph.Ds .

The history of online learning in higher education can sometimes seem too big to wrap your mind around, much like the internet itself, so we've put together a timeline to help you better understand the origins of today's online colleges and degrees.

A Brief Timeline of Online Education

— 1982.

The Western Behavioral Sciences Institute uses computer conferencing to provide a distance education program for business executives.

— 1983

Ron Gordon, Atari's former president, launches the Electronic University Network to make online courses available for people with access to personal computers.

— 1985

Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale-Davie, Florida, creates the first electronic classroom through an accredited online graduate program.

— 1986

The National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) launches the first open computer network — a precursor to the internet — allowing institutions to create and distribute electronic information.

— 1993

Jones International University opens in Centennial, Colorado, becoming the first fully web-based , accredited university.

— 1994

CALCampus introduces the first online-only curriculum with real-time instruction and participation — i.e., synchronous learning .

— 1995

Nineteen U.S. governors found Western Governors University to help Western states maximize educational resources through distance learning.

— 1998

California Virtual University — a consortium of California colleges offering around 700 online classes — opens.

The "Boom" of Distance Education

Percent of students taking distance education classes

— 2002

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) launches the OpenCourseWare Project to provide free MIT courses to people worldwide.

— 2012

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), a free online course resource, becomes available through Udacity and enables learners to take classes asynchronously at their own pace.

— 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic forces nearly every college and university to switch to online learning rather than hold classes in person.

Popular Online Programs

Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.

Evan Thompson is a Washington-based writer for TBS covering higher education. He has bylines in the Seattle Times, Tacoma News Tribune, Everett Herald, and others from his past life as a newspaper reporter.

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Take a Trip Through the History of E-Learning

In this article, you will get a comprehensive overview of the evolution and history of e-learning.

• By Sander Tamm
• Dec 21, 2019

E-student.org is supported by our community of learners. When you visit links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill

The history of e-learning is a colorful one, including stories of teaching robots from the early 1900s and up to awe-inspiring success stories from the 2000s. In this article, we will give you an overview of all the most significant events in the history of e-learning through an interactive timeline.

What is the History of E-Learning?

In 1999, the phrase “E-Learning” was mentioned for the first time in a professional context by  Elliott Masie  during the TechLearn conference at Disneyworld. However, the very first attempts at e-learning can be traced back to 1924, when Ohio State University professor  Sidney Pressey  created the very first electronic learning machine, the Automatic Teacher. 

Perhaps the most significant invention in the history of online learning technology is the PLATO. The PLATO is a computer system designed by  Donald L. Bitzer in 1960, and it was groundbreaking for its time. 

Two decades before the invention of the World Wide Web, the PLATO network could host thousands of users at its peak, and much of the greatest instructional software of the century across many educational disciplines was created on PLATO.  The PLATO terminals were very expensive at $5000-$7000 each , but they were worth every penny.

It must be noted, though, that not all inventions in the field of online learning and e-learning were as praised as the PLATO, which went through numerous successful re-releases and four generations. The success stories tend to be highlighted more often than the failures, but it’s just as important to highlight those innovations which failed to reach the masses. The earliest inventions in educational technology may have been clumsy and basic by today’s standards, but they served a crucial role in the development of the history of e-learning.

Timeline of Historical Events in E-Learning

Explore the timeline of all major events related in the history of e-learning and online learning. See how far we have come within a short period of time. The images were retrieved from  Wikimedia Commons .

1642: Pascal's Calculator

Blaise Pascal designed the very first mechanical calculator in 1642, when he was only 19 years old. Despite the significance of his invention, he only managed to sell 20 units within a period of 12 years.

1728: First Distance Learning Course

In 1728, Caleb Philips from Boston created the  very first distance learning course.  The course lessons were delivered to students weekly through regular mail.

1924: The Automatic Teacher

1957: The Teaching Machine

1960: plato.

Professor Don Bitzer from the University of Illinois created the first computer-based education tool, called the PLATO  (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations). In the beginning, PLATO was used to deliver computer-based education in order to  improve student literacy . However, the device quickly outgrew its strictly educational purpose and became a cornerstone in modern multi-user computing. PLATO is the direct ancestor of modern E-Learning systems such as Blackboard and WebCT.

1966: Computer-managed Instruction

1969: arpanet, 1977: apple ii personal computer.

In 1977, the Apple II personal computer is released, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak highlighting education as the primary intended application for the new hardware. Apple II featured color graphics and sounds, which was highly impressive for the time, and which made the devices particularly appealing to the young demographic.

1979: Apple Partners with Bell & Howell

1983: the electronic university network.

The Electronic University Network (EUN), an online educational network, is launched by former president of Atari Ron Gordon. It was established to help universities and colleges start utilizing online courses.

1986: A Quarter of High Schools Use PC’s

1989: world wide web (www).

The World Wide Web (WWW) is invented by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee. The WWW’s original purpose was information-sharing between academic institutions around the world. 

1994: First Online School

1999: term “e-learning” is first used, 1999: first online university, 2002: mit’s opencourseware, 2008: term "mooc" is first used, 2012: the year of the mooc, 2014: most universities use e-learning, 2018: e-learning reaches $168.8 billion.

In 2018, the global E-Learning market size reached $168.8 billion.

2020: Most Corporations Use E-Learning

Approximately 90% of US corporations now use online learning.

What's Next for E-Learning?

Only time will tell in which directions of the evolution of online learning is going to progress from now on. One thing is for sure, though – e-learning isn’t going anywhere. The past history of e-learning has shown that it’s currently on a path of exponential growth, and analysts agree that this growth will only continue to accelerate with time. Time will show whether and which kind of effect this kind of growth will have on traditional learning institutions, but it’s likely that they will need to redesign and adapt themselves to e-learning practices in order to stay competitive in the educational industry.

In the coming years, I believe that the biggest innovations in online learning will make use of adaptive e-learning , which is a type of e-learning that is able to adapt itself and its training materials according to the skillsets and knowledge level of each individual student. Personalized learning is the way of the future, and e-learning is undoubtedly one of the best ways of achieving truly personalized learning outcomes.

The history of e-learning is still in its early stages, and the industry is always looking for new innovators to push the sector further. You do have the chance to be at the forefront of it all – the world is waiting for the next round of innovators in educational technology.

Frequently Asked Questions

In this section, we will answer some of the most commonly asked questions related to the history of e-learning and online learning.

When did online learning start?

What was the first online university, when was the first online school created, who invented e-learning.

In order to answer the question of who invented e-learning, it’s necessary to differentiate offline e-learning and online learning. The first attempts at an offline e-learning device were made by Sidney Pressey, who invented the Automatic Teacher in 1924. However, the first e-learning system which could handle online networking, the PLATO, was invented by Donald Bitzer in 1960.

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The History of Online Schooling

Though it may seem that online education had its beginnings in the late 1900s, the concept of distance learning first came into practice in the mid 19th century when the U.S. Postal Service was developed. The notion of reliable, long-distance correspondence led to the development and implementation of what were called commercial ‘correspondence colleges’, where instructional missives would be distributed through the postal service between students and professors. Today, at-distance education programs have become more sophisticated and accessible due to the proliferation of the web and digital technology. Elite institutions around the world now offer open courseware, online degrees, and online classes that are both legitimizing and popularizing the idea of education from a computer.

A few significant advancements have shaped and pushed distance learning forward since the late 1800s. In 1873 the the first official correspondence education program, called the “Society to Encourage Home Studies”, was established in Boston, Massachusetts by Ana Eliot Ticknor. The University of Queensland in Australia founded its Department of Correspondence Studies in 1911, which also relied on Australia’s postal system. The University of South Africa, today known as one of the world’s open distance learning mega colleges, became a champion and innovator of distance learning when it reshaped its mission and focus in 1946.

In 1953 the University of House made distance learning history when it began offering the first televised college classes on KUHT (today called HoustonPBS), which was the first public television station in the United States. Referring to itself as the “The Channel That Changes You”, KUHT ran 13-5 hours of educational material each week, accounting for approximately 38% of the channel’s total broadcast time. Many of the courses aired in the evening so that learners who worked during the day had time to view the material.

After the television, the personal computer and the personal web were the next major inventions to revolutionize distance education. In 1989 the University of Phoenix became the first institution to launch a fully online collegiate institution that offered both bachelors and masters degrees. In 1996, entrepreneurs Glen Jones and Bernand Luskin launched Jones International University, which became the first accredited and fully web-based university. Since the creation of these fully online programs and schools, distance learning has continued to grow in many different directions. In 2003 the Blackboard Learning System staff announced that 40,000 instructors were teaching 150,000 online courses to more than 6 million students, across 55 countries.

Today it is estimated that 1 out of 4 college students are enrolled in at least one online classes. In 2009 there were over 4.5 million students taking online classes, with a Master of Science in Business Administration (MBA) being the top degree offered in the United States. This trend seems like to continue into the future: currently, 83% of all U.S. institutions that offer online courses say they expect an increase in online enrollment in the coming decade.

The growth of distance learning programs has many important side-effects on higher education. For example, the profile of a typical undergraduate student has changed significantly. The average age of students enrolled at the University of Phoenix is around 33, and more than 50% of all students taking online classes are currently female. Online education has also spurred changes in traditional colleges: now, 93% of all brick and mortar colleges offer online courses. An increasing number of universities, like the University of California Berkeley, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offer free online classes called open courseware that feature video lectures and quizzes taken directly from class discussion.

As technology improves and online programs become respected, education experts predict that the distance education will continue to expand and complexify in the future. Some leaders in the realm predict that the number of online students will grown to almost 19 million by 2014. To encourage this, President Barack Oabama has pledged over $500 million for the creation of new online course materials to fuel the industry.

Further Studies

If you want to play a role in the growing field of online education, the study of computer science can provide you with a strong foundation in the technical and theoretical aspects of computer technology, giving you the skills you need to create innovative tools for distance learners. However, if you are interested in the business aspects of running a profitable online college, a degree in business administration will teach you about the different elements that go into running a successful company, from marketing and management to finance and accounting. Finally, if you want to help make distance learning programs more effective, you can learn about methods and theories for creating quality instruction by enrolling in an education or instructional psychology degree program.

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