Distance education

Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school.^[1][2] Traditionally, this usually involved correspondence courses wherein the student corresponded with the school via mail. Today, it usually involves online education. A distance learning programme can be completely distance learning, or a combination of distance learning and traditional classroom instruction (called hybrid^[3] or blended).^[4] Massive open online courses (MOOCs), offering large-scale interactive participation and open access through the World Wide Web or other network technologies, are recent educational modes in distance education.^[1] A number of other terms (distributed learning, e-learning, m-learning, online learning, virtual classroom etc.) are used roughly synonymously with distance education.

One of the earliest attempts was advertised in 1728. This was in the Boston Gazette for "Caleb Philipps, Teacher of the new method of Short Hand", who sought students who wanted to learn through weekly mailed lessons.^[5]

The first distance education course in the modern sense was provided by Sir Isaac Pitman in the 1840s who taught a system of shorthand by mailing texts transcribed into shorthand on postcards and receiving transcriptions from his students in return for correction. The element of student feedback was a crucial innovation in Pitman's system.^[6] This scheme was made possible by the introduction of uniform postage rates across England in 1840.^[7]

This early beginning proved extremely successful and the Phonographic Correspondence Society was founded three years later to establish these courses on a more formal basis. The society paved the way for the later formation of Sir Isaac Pitman Colleges across the country.^[8]

The first correspondence school in the United States was the Society to Encourage Studies at Home which was founded in 1873.^[9]

The University of London was the first university to offer distance learning degrees, establishing its External Programme in 1858. The background to this innovation lay in the fact that the institution (later known as University College London) was non-denominational and the intense religious rivalries at the time led to an outcry against the "godless" university. The issue soon boiled down to which institutions had degree-granting powers and which institutions did not.^[11]

Student in Kerala, India taking distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The London University in 1827, drawn by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd

William Rainey Harper encouraged the development of external university courses at the new University of Chicago in the 1890s.

Walton Hall, renovated in 1970 to act as the headquarters of the newly established Open University. (Artist: Hilary French)

Distance lessons over video conferences in the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.

in Italy.