(an abstract)
the purpose of this paper is to shed some light on the historical perspective, current practices and future potentials of the new forms of distance education or virtual learning in the information-aged global economy in the 21st century.
distance learning has redefined itself over the past century and expanded its capabilities in delivering educational content and learning experiences through embracing various advancements of new technologies. the most recent technology advancement in telecommunication and networking has created unprecedented opportunities for distance education to grow and expand. the dramatic advancements of telecommunication, networking, web-based dynamic interface enabling video, voice and data, and constant access have given a new birth to distance learning and created a virtual learning environment for distance education. as a result, attempts have been made to redefine the new mode of distance education and capture the power of anytime, anywhere learning in the terms of e-learning, e-school, virtual school, virtual education, virtual learning, and etc.
this paper intends to depict the evolution of distance education from its early stage of correspondence courses to virtual learning to date. the origins, growth, media used, type of students utilizing distance education, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing distance education are examined. the focus of this paper to delineate the different forms of distance learning through various technology advancements and discuss the impact of recent technology advancement on distance education in the united states both at k-12 and college levels.
specifically, this paper is divided into five sections. the first section will delineate the history or evolution of distance education along with various advancements of technology. the second section will depict the dramatic change and current practice of distance education in the high education community in the united states. the third section will focus on the common practice and emerging models of virtual education in k-12 schools in the united states. in the fourth section, the trends in new york state will be synthesized. finally, the practical issues and policy concerns associated with virtual learning to date will be examined. in this section, educational opportunity and access, quality of learning in terms of knowledge, skills, and experiences and assessment of virtual learning as well as accreditation will be discussed.
trends in virtual education in the united states: a snapshot at the transformation of distance education
this paper intends to depict the evolution of distance education from its early stage of correspondence courses to virtual learning to date. the origins, growth, media used, type of students utilizing distance education, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing distance education are examined. the focus of this paper to delineate the different forms of distance learning through various technology advancements and discuss the impact of recent technology advancement on distance education in the united states both at k-12 and college levels.
specifically, this paper is divided into five sections. the first section will delineate the history or evolution of distance education along with various advancements of technology. the second section will depict the dramatic change and current practice of distance education in the high education community in the united states. the third section will focus on the common practice and emerging models of virtual education in k-12 schools in the united states. in the fourth section, the trends in new york state will be synthesized. finally, the practical issues and policy concerns associated with virtual learning to date will be examined. in this section, educational opportunity and access, quality of learning in terms of knowledge, skills, and experiences and assessment of virtual learning as well as accreditation will be discussed.
1. from correspondence courses to virtual schools
first developed in england in 1840, distance learning programs became within a few decades a regular part of academic learning in the united kingdom, germany, the united states and japan. by the 1900s, the first department of correspondence teaching was established at the university of chicago. academic distance education was mainly directed towards adult learners unable to attend a regular college. several states also created public distance-learning high school programs for teenagers in remote areas, such as indiana in 1929 and north dakota in 1935. in addition, private, profit-making schools taught vocational subjects by mail.
in the 1970s, the desire to extend education to more people unable to attend regular colleges, coupled with the availability of new technologies such as audio and video materials, led to an increase in distance education. according to a survey by the u.s. department of education (http://nces.ed.gov), by the mid-1980s more than 300,000 students took academic distance courses, by 1995 753,000 students. by 1995, one third of higher education institutions in the united states offered some form of distance learning. about 690 degrees and 170 certificates could be completed by taking distance education courses exclusively, and about 3,430 of such degrees and 1,970 of such certificates were awarded. by 1998, 44% of american institutions of higher education offered some distance courses, and 8%, or 180 graduate schools and over 150 undergraduate colleges offered distance degree programs, with an increasing proportion being web-based. most of them were geared towards graduate and first professional levels, in management, health professions, education and engineering. (chea, update number 3, june 2000). these courses, while still marketed mainly to traditional adult distance learners, now also target professionals such as teachers and enrolled college students desiring to replace some traditional classes with online courses, usually because they work part-time and need flexible hours. it is estimated that by 2002, over 2.2 million students in american colleges will take distance courses. (moore, 2000).
despite the availability of other technologies, such as video-conferencing, the internet is becoming the technology of choice in distance education. by 1998, of the 44% of american institutions of higher education providing distance courses, 60% used asynchronous web-courses, and 19% synchronous web courses, with some using both forms. at the same time, the use of video-based technology stagnated. (chronicle of higher ed 27 jan. 2000). the use of the net is spurred by two technological breakthroughs that will give much quicker access: wireless internet access on campus (bluetooth), and lucent’s new split-light fiber-optic cables. (technology investing, 11/2000, p. 2, 4)
the role of distance education was not so much to challenge the structure of higher learning, but to extend the traditional university to people unable to take courses for a variety of reasons, such as geographic isolation, physical handicaps or because they worked or raised children. in the united states, in the early 1990s, about 2/3s of the audience for adult distance education is female, and 80% of them have children, (matthews 1999). however, since the mid-1990s, the target population also includes young enrolled students desiring to replace some traditional classes with online courses, usually because they work part-time and need more flexible hours. in addition, a growing number of such online courses are taken by students in other countries. traditional distance learning exchanges by mail took too long and often were too uncertain to make courses by mail accessible to a large number of students abroad. but the internet allows a student anywhere with a stable access to a phone line to take online courses.
distance education for k-12 students developed more slowly than distance education for college students. nebraska created in 1929 a degree-granting public high school program taught by correspondence, targeted at isolated rural students. so did north dakota in 1935, followed by a few other states such as texas and indiana. the growth of the home schooling movement in the 1980s created a demand for distance courses suited for children and teenagers, which increasingly is being met by online instruction. online instruction also has become an important instructional tool in public schools. since the 1990s, there has been a sustained effort to promote computer literacy in schools and use the net for k-12 distance education. the association for educational communication and technology reported that more than $10 billion has been spent to put computer equipment and wiring in public schools (k-12) to enable students to connect to the internet thoughcritics of e-learning argue there is no reason to believe that all of the technology in schools will actually help students improve their performance in the classroom. (wireless week, 25 september 2000). but regulatory issues, opposition by the public school system, and fears that, unlike adults, children and teenagers need face-to-face instruction, have limited the growth of virtual k-12 courses and especially virtual high school degrees. by 2000, a small number of high schools offer and accept online courses within a curriculum consisting mainly of traditional courses. a small but noticeable trend is the creation of “virtual” high schools to provide teens who do not desire to physically attend a high school with a high school education.
academic instruction had been traditionally provided by not-for-profit institutions, while commercial providers focused on vocational training, awarding certificates and the odd unaccredited bachelor degree. the internet has spurred the growth of for-profit online courses and tutorials for adult education, corporate training, workforce training, and tutorials for students in schools and colleges, (moore, 2000). some now offer credit-bearing courses and degrees traditionally offered by public or private schools and colleges. the entry of these companies into the academic market is controversial.
the popularity of the medium has led somewhat to an inflated terminology, with schools, after creating a homepage, proudly calling themselves “virtual schools.” ideally, the expression “virtual” for schools and colleges should be restricted to institutions offering degree programs exclusively online, be it as independent institution or as a learning network.
2. virtual colleges
distance education, whether as courses or full-fledged degree programs, has been offered by many colleges since decades. the switch to the web is a change of medium rather than of concept, even though the new technology has educational potentialities which mail-based distance teaching could not provide. the internet also has made offering distance courses to a mass-audience easier.
many traditional colleges offer now credit-carrying online courses, using either their own courses or those from outside providers—academic or proprietary -to broaden their course offerings. especially for community colleges, the web helps bolster sagging enrollment numbers without expensive new buildings. a course offered online is also convenient for community college students, many of whom tend to work full-time, have children, or live in remote areas—and usually are on a tight budget. internet-based classes also complement these schools' traditional technical emphasis. although software, hardware, course development costs can be expensive, the higher enrollment spurred by online offerings is expected to make up the difference, (industry standard, october 2000).
as a result, the availability of such courses will continueto grow. a recent study by the western cooperative for educational communications (wcet) of 1400 of the nation’s 3000 colleges and universities showed that 79% offered distance courses (all media counted) and over a third distance degree programs, notably to nurses and beginning teachers who need to study at flexible hours. because of the cost involved, such programs tend to be based on learning networks, with existing institutions sharing courses, rather than on the creation of an entirely new university with its own curriculum on the web. degrees can be granted through participating institutions, or through the new entity, the latter being currently less common. in the late 1990s, several states created degree-granting online colleges, such as the kentucky virtual university, which is both a learning network and grants a limited number of degrees based on courses provided by member institutions. it should be stressed that most online degree programs are an extension of traditional campus-based programs. there are not yet many “virtual campuses” existing solely in cyberspace, (dirr 1999, 29).
for-profit providers are also entering the market for online academic courses. this is not at all a novel phenomenon. in the 1970s and 1980s, a few for-profit colleges were founded and accredited by regional accrediting boards. some of these institutions used classroom teaching, such as the american schools of professional psychology, founded in 1976 and owned by the argosy education group, inc., the university of phoenix, (http://online.uophx.edu), (che 7 jan. 2000, a46-48) and the graduate school of america in minneapolis, (tgsa) founded in 1992, and others used distance education only, such as walden university (www.waldenu.edu) and capella university (www.capellauniversity.edu). like their non-profit counterparts, both types of for-profit colleges have moved into the worldwide web, with tgsa now nearly fully online save for an optional summer residency on a temporarily-leased college campus. they were joined by a handful of new for-profits that have been “virtual” from the beginning, such as the denver-based jones international university, founded in 1995, (www.jonesinternational.edu), athena university, founded in 1994 and based in columbus, mo, (www.athena.edu), owned by the corporate trainer vousi, inc., and concord university school of law, (www.concord.kaplan.edu), owned by kaplan, inc., a subsidiary of the washington post.
these for-profit academic institutions offer to a nationwide audience courses and degrees mainly in business, health and human services. these are the most lucrative, and traditional colleges often use the revenue from these courses to subsidize courses in the liberal arts. in this newly competitive marketplace, to avoid losing too many students to the new market, traditional non-profit private universities are creating for-profit subsidiaries, often as joint ventures with corporate trainers having more expertise in marketing. examples of such joint ventures are unext.com (), a for-profit corporate trainer licensed to offer online courses from columbia university’s business school, the university of chicago, stanford university, carnegie-mellon university, and the london school of economics. unext.com hopes to obtain accreditation for an online mba. duke university grants online mbas through a for-profit subsidiary with iese business school. babson college in boston has a for-profit subsidiary of its own. (wall street journal 6/23/99, in edupage 23 june 1999; financial times 23 oct 2000 in edupage 10/25/00).
because the old for-profit distance colleges founded in the 1960s-1980s are fully accredited, their new online operations are so as well. but the new “virtual” campuses have encountered resistance in getting regional accreditation. in march 1999, jiu was accredited, but the others not yet. the reticence seems illogical, and partly caused by the abrasive and profit-driven personality of some of the venture capitalists investing in online universities. the managers of walden university, for instance, followed academic standards of behavior and were content as niche providers. by contrast, using the language of consumer merchandizing, the new investors in online education aggressively tout their outfits not as complements, but as superior choices to traditional education. they also have a much lower ratio of full-time faculty to underpaid adjuncts than traditional for-profit distance institutions—though quality feedback is vital for distance learners, whatever the format. yet since the old proprietary distance education providers were accredited, the new “virtual” ones will logically be so as well after some time. in the meantime, to bypass the accreditation problem, some online colleges, such as athena university, are granting degrees through a partner school abroad that is accredited in its home country, in the case of au through a business college in france. naturally, to be an asset for the provider, that country must carry a certain reputation for educational stringency.
below are examples of public, accredited private, and non-accredited private virtual campuses. it should be noted that there are not many public degree-granting virtual campuses yet. it seems that public colleges preferring to support learning networks, with degrees granted by member institutions. kentucky virtual university and california virtual university, despite their names, are not virtual universities but learning networks.
