Distance Education Blog

Distance education gives a chance to students who can not attend traditional school the opportunity to get a certificate. One of the obvious advantages of this kind of education is that it gives a chance to further education, without being interrupted from work or family related matters. But everyone should understand that it is not always free. Here is a short history of the development of distance education.

• 1840 – In the United Kingdom Isaac Pitman begins correspondence education.

• 1858 – Establishing the External Program by The University of London.

• 1883 – Chautauqua Institute gets the right from New York State to give degrees earned through correspondence.

• 1891 – The Colliery Engineer School of Mines is renamed into International Correspondence Schools.

• 1892 – First mail university courses started in The University of Chicago.

• 1906 – First primary school (The Calvert School of Baltimore) provides correspondence courses.

• 1916 – Emergence of the National University Continuing Education Association in the U.S.

• 1921 – Broadcasting courses on the radio in Pennsylvania.

• 1933 – The University of Iowa follows the tradition.

• 1950 – Developing educational programs for television broadcasting due to grants offered by The Ford Foundation.

• 1967 – Emergence of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

• 1970 – Starting Walden University.

• 1974 – First correspondence Masters degrees awarded by California State University.

• 1982 – Establishing of the National University Teleconferencing Network.

• 1984 – Time Magazine names a personal computer “man of the year”.

With the development of computer technologies distance education gains its popularity in the society. Most colleges in North America establish courses online now. On of the most obvious advantages of online education is that people can do it no matter where that country they come from. The internet makes us closer to each other.