Distance learning did not start with the internet. Nor did it start with the launch of the first educational television station, or even the issue of the first educational radio license.
The history of distance learning dates back to 1883 with the founding of the Chautauqua Institute, the first correspondence school, located in northwest New York State, where students mailed their lessons back and forth to their teachers.
“When you look at the history of distance learning – going all the way back to the days of correspondence schools – you see that it is an industry that has progressed,” says John Flores, head of the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA), the industry group. “But in terms of widespread acceptance of distance learning, it is all down to the worldwide web. People today are very comfortable with it and are more accepting of it because of the internet.”
Indeed, as president of the non-profit, Boston-based USDLA, Mr Flores works to promote distance learning and advocate policy to government and regulatory groups. In the US, demand for distance learning has increased substantially. Overall online enrolment rose from 1.98m in 2003 to 2.35m in 2004, according to a study by the Sloan Consortium, which operates out of Olin and Babson Colleges. But Mr Flores does not limit his mission to the US; rather his goal is to: “unite learners around the world”. This will happen, he says, mainly through the internet. The number of internet users surpassed 1bn in 2005, and is expected to reach 2bn by the year 2011 – with much of the future use coming from countries such as China, India, Brazil, Russia and Indonesia.
Today, distance learning represents a $15-$20bn business, and Mr Flores sees its growth potential as limitless. "Our question used to be: who is doing distance education? But today the question is: who isn’t? There are currently millions of students in distance learning situations,” he says. “The US is exporting more programmes internationally, but we’re also importing more programmes from overseas. The growth has just exploded.”
Still, Mr Flores – who has spent his entire professional career in education and earned a PhD from the University of Connecticut – concedes that distance learning programmes will never supplant traditional universities. “The average 18-22 year old will always attend college as we know it today,” he says. “But the difference is that many of their courses that used to be taught exclusively in the lecture halls will now be taught with a blended approach, meaning that some of it will be online and some of it will use the traditional methods.”
He says that he does not worry that students lose out on interacting with their teachers and fellow students. “The technology is such that students can see each other on webcams and participate in group discussions that way. The interaction is available through technology,” he says. “My feeling is that it’s just as good, if not better than face-to-face classes.”
While he does not believe that bricks and mortar universities will ever be replaced by cyber-schools, he does see big changes afoot for graduate schools and certificate programmes. The typical online student is married, between the ages of 25 and 45, and working in a full-time job, according to Mr Flores. “These are people who are very busy and can’t take the time off to attend a grad programme. But with distance learning they can do it any time, anywhere, any place,” he says. “It’s not one-size fits all.”
He also points to the proliferation of corporate universities. “Companies are going to established universities and asking them to create customised programmes in law, government, engineering, education, you name it,” he says. “If a school has the right programmes, corporations will come to them. This is big business.”
Mr Flores says his biggest concern about the future of distance learning has to do with quality control. “We as an association have to make sure that the programmes out there that are being implemented are quality,” he says. In order to ensure this, the group formed the Distance Learning Accreditation Board last year. The board, which operates under the auspices of the USDLA, evaluates various courses and programmes to improve their effectiveness, and also certifies distance learning institutions. “We’re working with several universities now to make sure we can give them our seal of approval,” he says.
