Distance learning grew out of experimentation by universities with closed satellite television broadcasts into regional classrooms throughout the mid-west in the 1960s. Students used the postal systems to correspond with instructors and receive written lectures and exams. But it wasn't until the growth of telecommunications technologies and the internet, that distance learning began to prosper.
Since the mid-1990s, when on-line education was being hyped as 'the next great killer application,' educators and business people were glossy-eyed with the vision of masses of students paying for expensive courses developed by famous professors from well-known universities. They dreamed of a new kind of classroom with sexy trendy internet technology, such as streaming video, simulation games, and other gimmicks would make run of the mill instructors archaic. Many of those programs no longer exist. The students never arrived. The lack of the personal touch of the ordinary instructor on the other end of the keyboard was deemed the cause. The enormously successful University of Phoenix Online, took the opposite approach. They created small classes, sensible lessons and reliable technology. Today, this cozier distance learning business philosophy is where on-line education is, as proven by the sheer number of students and their tuition dollars.
Today, 70 percent of American universities have at least one course on-line, and it is expected to grow to 90 percent by the year 2005. The variety of schools publishing their intellectual products on the internet is stunning: from modest Mississippi Community Colleges, to exclusive Harvard Business School's M.B.A. program, to the numerous master's degree programs at the University of Illinois, which encompasses a course schedule of hundreds of courses to choose from. The variety of academic and professional disciplines is astonishing. Generally most distance learning curriculum is inclined towards business and technology, with at least 600 marketing courses available online. Students can select from the common academic programs ranging from art, to psychology, to mathematics, and to special education programs.
Throughout the history of distance education, critics questions whether students can actually learn well from a remote location. Detractors argue that on-line education sacrifices intellectual excellence for convenience. It fosters isolation among students and dehumanizes the learning process. The American Federation of Teachers believes that distance learning inhibits rather than enhances quality education.
Universities expect enrollment to triple in the next ten years. To add to the educational options, several corporations, like General Motors and Microsoft, are setting up their own on-line learning centers for their workers and users. Moreover, hosts of private companies have arrived to profit on this fairly new educational market, which is already a multibillion-dollar market worldwide. Companies such as, Click2learn, Quisic, NETg, and SmartForce were formed to sell detached corporate educational modules on business practices ranging from employee hiring to developing C# software. Many of these companies no longer exist as a result of their marketing approach.
