History of Online Education

By David Ferrer

Online Education ties together several historical threads—computers, distance learning, and telecommunications, just to name a few. This means tracing the history of online education goes back much further than just the dawn of the Internet.

We do our best to bring all these related streams together into a single timeline. But, be aware, online learning is a lot more than just internet technology. It also merges educational theory, computer technology, and even legislation. All of these are needed to make your online education possible.

Before 1900: The Industrial Age and Early Computers

You might not think of computer technology as emerging in a time when the steam engine was considered modern technology. But the earliest computers were born during the Industrial Era. Some may dispute what counts as a “computer.” Strictly speaking, any counting machine such as an abacus might be regarded as a computer. But this time period actually marks the debut of the first semi-automated computing machines. This era also marks the beginning of radios, motion pictures, and—especially important for our purposes—correspondence courses.

1600s	John Napier, Wilhelm Schickard, Blaise Pascal, and others design mechanical calculating machines.
1728	Caleb Phillips begins advertising private (mail) correspondence courses in the Boston Gazette newspaper. Informal “correspondence educations” can be found thereafter, with varying degrees of quality and consistency.
1804	Weaver and merchant Joseph-Marie Jacquard invents the punch card loom (computer). The punch card method of programming would later be used in early IBM computers.
1832	Charles Baggage produces the first prototype of a “modern” style automated computer. He called it an “analytic engine.”
1873	The first formal correspondence schools in the United States begin. Their collective organization is called The Society to Encourage Studies at Home, founded by Ana Eliot Tickner in Boston, Massachusetts.
1876	Alexander Graham Bell makes the first telephone call on March 10, thus inventing the first working telephone. His message was, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”
1878	The first motion-picture photography is achieved by Edward Muybridge on June 19. This short experimental recording shows a galloping horse. Muybridge was settling a dispute about whether running horses lift all four feet off the ground at the same time.
1892	The University of Chicago is the first traditional American educational institution (college or K–12) to offer correspondence courses.
1895	The first radio signal is sent by Guglielmo Marconi. This technology reaches England by 1999. Guglielmo Marconi January 1, 1908.

[Return to the top…]

 

1900–59: The Great Wars and The Proto-Internet Era

The early incentive for innovation in computer technology was often war-related. In this era, the word “computer” still meant “a person who does computation.” During and after two world wars, the biggest source of funding and federal support was for military purposes, most notably for competing with the Russians. Russia’s launch of Sputnik in 1957 set American forces ablaze with new inspiration. After a decade of robust post-war production and innovation, the United States is well-positioned to take a lead in technology development. In this era, radio technology reaches into every home, and television and video recording are invented.

1906	The Calvert School of Baltimore (Maryland) is the first primary school in the US to offer correspondence courses.
1911	IBM (International Business Machines) is founded in New York City, but under an earlier name, “Computer-Tabulating-Recording Company” (June 16).
1922	Pennsylvania State University is the first college or university to broadcast courses over the radio.
1925	The University of Iowa begins offering course credit for five different radio correspondence courses.
1926	John Logie Baird invents the first television in England. The National Home Study Council forms. They would change their name to the Distance Education and Training Council in 1942.
1927	Philo T. Farnsworth invents the first fully-functional all-electronic television system.
1934	The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is formed. Under the influence of the Association of College and University Broadcasting, they help to keep frequencies open for collegiate broadcasting.
1936	The Turing machine, a code-breaking computer, is invented by Alan Turing to assist the allied forces in breaking the code used for German military instructions. Some credit Turing (and his team) with turning the tide of WWII. Later versions were called the “Bombe” and “Victory.”
1941	Allegedly, the first fully automated electro-mechanical programmable digital computer is created, the Z3, by German Konrad Zuse. The Z3 computer by Konrad Zuse (1941)
1942	Colossus is built. This set of computers aids British intelligence in code-breaking in the war effort. This computer system is thought to be the first electronic fully programmable digital computing device. Some dispute persists over which computer systems were first, because most of the technology served covert military purposes and were subsequently destroyed. Colossus pictured here in 31 Dec. 1942
1946	RCA (Radio Corporation of America) begins selling the first mass produced home television set, the RCA 630-TS. It features a ten-inch screen, four dials, and built-in speaker system. It weighed eighty-five pounds. The RCA 630-TS pictured here in a museum display 21 October 2012
1950	WOI-TV of Iowa State University goes on the air with the first non-experimental, educationally owned television station.
1951	Charles Ginsberg invents the first video-tape recorder.
1953	The University of Houston begins offering course credit for television correspondence courses.
1957	The USSR launches sputnik, the first satellite. Thus began a new era of global communications.
1958	Bell Laboratories invents the modem (“modulator and demodulator”). This device converts digital signals to analog (electric) signals, enabling wired communication between two or more computers. ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) is created by the US government in response to Russia’s Sputnik program. ARPA would later play a major role in establishing the groundwork for the Internet.

[Return to the top…]

 

1960–79: The Space Age and the Early Internet

The internet takes its first wobbly steps in these early years. This era is marked by many “firsts,” including the invention of packet switching, ASCII coding, the term “internet,” the launch of ARPANET, and of course, and the first internet signal—“LO” (attempting the word “LOGIN”). Most of the technology developed in this period has since been retired, antiquated by the natural evolution of technology. But this would be a period of rapid and remarkable breakthrough, giving first light to the prospect of a worldwide computer network.

1961	Leonard Kleinrock innovates a new form of signal transfer which would later be called “packet switching.” These networks relay data in small blocks (packets) that are reassembled on the other end. This technology improves the speed of circuit switch networks.
1962	J.C.R. Licklider of MIT envisions a “galactic network” concept where all computers can access data and programs from any other site, effectively describing what came to be known as the internet. J.C.R. Licklider Courtesy of Wikimedia
1963	The first computer universal computer language, ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Exchange) is created by a joint effort between the industries and the US government.
1964	Donald Davies coins the term “packet switching.”
1965	Leonard Kleinrock, Lawrence Roberts, and Thomas Merrill create the first wide area computer network, using telephone lines. Their work was sponsored by ARPA. The University of Wisconsin begins to implement a statewide telephone correspondence format for their physician training. The Higher Education Act of 1965 establishes a federal student loan program (Title VI). It is aimed at, among other things, empowering higher rates of secondary education. This act has been amended and approved many times over the years but remains largely intact through at least 2015.
1966	ARPA sponsors the launch of ARPANET research project under the supervision of Robert Taylor. Its aim is to bridge packet-switching technology and computer networks. Thomas Merrill and Lawrence Roberts publish “Toward a Cooperative Network of Time Sharing Computers,” proposing a strategy for implementing the computer network that would become the first internet.
1967	ARPA begins building the first ARPANET computer network. Lawrence Roberts heads the project. Wesley Clark proposes the use of “interface message processors” (IMP’s). These are the predecessor to routers.
1968	The University of Nebraska–Lincoln begins to offer an accredited high school diploma program through their independent study high school. Douglas Englebrecht gives the “mother of all demos.” This historic demonstration essentially showcased most all the major features of modern computing in a single device, including hypertexting, windows, graphics, video conference, the computer mouse, word processing, real-time editing, and much more. This computer was called oN-Line System (NLS).
1969	The first four nodes of the preliminary internet, the ARPANET are linked through a physical Interface Message Processor (IMP) network. The nodes are in UCLA, UC–Santa Barbara, Stanford, and the University of Utah. October 29th, Charley Kline transmitted the first internet signal (data packets) under the supervision of Leonard Kleinrock at UCLA. The receiving end of the signal was at Stanford Research Institute. The message was “L” and “O”. The system crashed before relaying the third letter, a “G.” On the second try they succeeded in sending the complete word “LOGIN.”
1970	Peter Kerstein starts ARPANET in Europe.
1971	Ray Tomlinson of Cambridge, Massachusetts, sends the first text-message, “something like QWERTYUIOP” from one computer to a neighboring computer in the same lab using ARPANET. At the same time, Tomlinson invented the “user@host” formulation for email addresses.
1972	Robert Kahn first presents ARPANET to the public at an international computer communications conference, using packet-switching between a network of twenty different computers. Jon Postel creates the first internet address registry. This would later become the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
1973	Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, California, invents Ethernet as a solution to the problem of how to network a room full of computers. TCP/IP protocols commence under the leadership of Vint Cerf of Stanford and Robert Kahn of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). These protocols enable different networks to communicate with each other. First real-time voice and video application of packet switching on ARPANET. Danny Cohen pioneered this technology for use in a flight simulator. University College of London and NORSAR in Norway connect through the first international ARPANET link.
1974	Host naming registry begins under the guidance of Elizabeth Feinler and her group, the Network Information Center (NIC). They formulate the domain tags common today: .edu, .gov, .mil, .org, and .net. Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn coin the term “internet” in a paper called “A Protocol for packet Network Interconnection.” Lawrence Roberts founds Telenet through the support of Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN). This is the first public version of ARPANET.
1975	Bill Gates and Paul Allen found the Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft pioneer Bill Gates
1976	The first virtual campus, Coastline Community College, is born, offering its degree program entirely through telecommuting courses, also known as telecourses (using telephone, television, radio, records, and tapes). The virtual campus operates out of Fountain Valley, California.
1977	Lawrence Landweber establishes the Computer Science Network (CSNET) with the intention of connecting all US universities and industrial computer research groups.

[Return to the top…]

 

1980–89: The Computer Age and the Modern Internet

Even though internet-type signals had been transmitted from school to school in decades past, the 1980’s are the birth years of modern internet. Before this era, the internet—and online education with it—were just research experiments. The vision for the internet was primarily based in university computer labs. But online education does finds its earliest entrants in the 1980’. During this era, the internet reaches Europe and Asia. Infrastructure is laid down, providing for faster and more expansive internet operations and effectively opening the door for the total commercial and popular permeation of web use in the decade that would immediately follow.

1980	Radia Perlman begins to design the IS-IS (Intermediate System to Intermediate System) routing protocol. Essentially, this programming enables users to link computers into a network merely by plugging them in. This way, the computers configure automatically, instead of manually. Van Houweling begins overseeing the National Science Foundation’s NSFNET. Early networking efforts connected thousands of science and research groups (mostly schools), and would lay the groundwork for the global commercial internet we know today. David Farber, the “Grandfather of the Internet,” helps establish the National Science Foundation’s Computer Science Network (CSNET). CSNET proves instrumental in raising awareness of computer networking technology. First US–Europe network gateway begins under the supervision of Lawrence Landweber.
1981	The Osborne 1 is the first commercially successful portable computer. The Osborne 1 portable computer Western Behavioral Sciences Institute offers the first online college program through its School of Management and Strategic Studies.
1982	First European Public Wide Area Network (WAN) is initiated under the guidance of Teus Hagen. Asia connects to the Internet through the System Development Network (SDN) set up by Japanese-born, American-educated, Kilnam Chon, working with a research team based in South Korea. Chon is credited with bringing the internet to Asia.
1983	Modern internet is born when ARPANET transitions to TCP/IP protocols, leaving behind the former (weaker, less flexible) protocols of the Network Control Programs (NCP). The Domain Name System (DNS) is invented by Paul Mockapetris.
1984	The first email is sent from the US to Germany on August 3. It says, “Willkommen CSNET.”
1985	First accredited online graduate program offered by Nova Southeastern University. First US research and education network developed: NSFNET. This network is the first open computer network focused on research and higher education. Previous networks were all “closed networks.”
1987	More than ten African countries first connect to the internet through the African Information Society Initiative, facilitated by Nancy Hafkin.
1988	Dr. Glenn Ricart creates the first Internet Exchange Point, connecting federal networks (TCP/IP) with the first commercial and noncommercial networks. Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE) first convenes. This group becomes the Internet networking coordination center for all of Europe. Daniel Karrenberg builds EUnet, the first pan-European internet service provider. Van Jacobson creates algorithm for the still-popular Transmission Control Protocol, TCP to address Internet congestion problems.
1989	About twenty-five more countries connect to the Internet through the NSFNET (National Science Foundation Network). Tim Berners-Lee creates the “World Wide Web” from his sponsored publication, “Information Management: A Proposal” Brewster Kahle creates the Wide Area Information Server (WAIS), a precursor to “search engines.” The University of Phoenix, a private for-profit school, launches its online degree program.

[Return to the top…]

 

1990–99: The Information Age and the Internet Boom

The 1990’s are marked by a tech boom, as the commercial prospects of the internet are starting to take root. The early pioneers of online learning enter the fray around this time. But other companies begin utilizing the internet to pioneer brand new avenues of entertainment, learning, exploration, and discovery. Sometimes called the “internet bubble,” this tech boom is marked by inflated economic growth.

1990	The Internet Bubble—An internet technology boom spurs economic growth as venture capitalists and new markets expand radically into the cyber world. This growth is thought to be a “bubble” because much of the growth was high risk, unsustainable growth that was followed by rapid collapse. Ida Holz champions Latin American internet. Linus Torvalds creates Linux, which would become a leading mode of Open Source software.
1991	Tim Berners-Lee creates the first website on August 6. The first website address is: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. The site is still active today. The First Website on 6 August 1991. Screenshot pictured here from 9 Oct 2017 Phil Zimmerman creates Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) as a freely published email encryption software. It would become one of the most widely used email encryption softwares globally. Al Gore “Invents” the internet. In actuality, he creates and helps pass the High-performance Computing and Communications Act (“The Gore Bill”), allocating $600 million toward advancing internet technology and creating the “Information Superhighway” (the term was eventually subsumed by the internet). The World Wide Web (WWW) opens to the public.
1992	Japan connects to the internet using UNIX, thanks to the work of Haruhisa Ushida. The internet surpasses 1 million hosts. Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn found the Internet Society. Western Michigan University develops a system of automatic computerized grading known as “Computer Assisted Personalized Approach” (CAPA).
1993	John Cioffi—the “Father of DSL”—develops the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications launches the Mosaic browser, which popularizes the World Wide Web for the general public.
1994	Mainland China first connects to the internet (TCP/IP) thanks to Madam Qiheng Hu. Amazon.com launches in July. Justin Hall, a Swarthmore student, creates the first personal blog, Links.net, which he refers to as his homepage.
1995	Karlheinz Brandenburg and his team develop the MP3. Ebay launched (September 3). Many schools today allow for bill payments through eBay.
1996	Email surpasses postal mail in number of documents sent and received. Jones International University—the first fully web-based, accredited university—launches. The school closed after graduating its last class in 2015. Brewster Kahle founds the Internet Archive.
1997	Blackboard Course Management software launches, effectively opening the market to a wide range of online options that were previously considered too unwieldy to handle.
1998	Paypal Holdings Inc., also known as “Paypal,” is created in December 1998. Paul Vixie creates the MAPS Anti-spam company. MAPS stands for Mail Abuse Prevention System. Tan Tin Wee founds the multilingual internet Domain Name System (DNS). Google search engine developed (September 4) Mozilla corporation founded (February 28) by members of Netscape as a free software community. It would later include Firefox web browser, one of the leading alternatives to Microsoft Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. The first newsblog appears. The first known instance of a news “weblog,” later known as “blog,” appears to have been created by Jonathan Dube for the Charlotte Observer (a North Carolina newspaper), and was designed to help readers track the stormfront for Hurricane Bonnie.
1999	Site security protocols, known as Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC), are standardized due to the efforts of Ann-Marie Eklund Lowinder. Craig Newmark founds Craigslist.

[Return to the top…]

 

2000–Today: The Information Age, Part Two — the Global Community

After the rapid expansion of the Internet in the 1990s, the novelty begins to wear off and its truly seismic impact is felt across the globe and throughout society. Distant villages and households are connecting to the internet. Legislation and policy is increasingly challenged to keep up with the hastened pace of information coursing through the internet. Increasingly, conventional businesses and information mediums shift into online formats and it becomes the norm for most everyone to have a website, as well as a unique “digital profile” (record of one’s interactions in social media, browsing, commenting, and shopping). From 2000 forward, the internet is firmly entrenched as a critical dimension of modern society, as opposed to merely a new technology added onto old society.

2000	Internet reaches Africa due largely to the work of Nii Quaynor, known in Africa as the “Father of the Internet.” Aaron Swartz, Dan Libby, and Ramanathan V. Guha create RSS feeds. RSS stands for “Rich Site Summary” (and sometimes called “Really Simple Syndication”) and these are web feeds which pool one’s preferred news and information from the web.
2001	Computer prodigy Aaron Swartz builds Creative Commons under the supervision of law professor Lawrence Lessig. Swarz was fifteen at the time. Jimmy Wales launches Wikipedia.
2002	Mahabir Pun brings the internet to the remote and hard-to-reach areas of Nepal.
2003	Tim Woo coined the term “net neutrality.”
2004	In February, Mark Zuckerberg and his small team of fellow Harvard Students launched Facebook, which was originally intended as a collegiate social chat site.
2005	Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim register the YouTube domain Valentine’s Day — the online video giant was originally conceived as a matchmaking site.
2006	iTunes U launches. Title VI of the Higher Education Act (1965) is reviewed and found wanting. This provision is designed to foster diversity among the different campuses by making education more affordable. However, accusations arose that many Title VI programs were vulnerable to heavy discriminatory bias and were easily exploited for monetary gain (roughly equivalent to loan sharking). The review board concluded that the Department of Education was failing in this regard, and higher education was suffering from rampant abuse of school loan programs. Salman Kahn founds Khan Academy. Salman Khan giving a TED talk in 2011
2009	YouTube/EDU launches, three years after YouTube first launched in 2006. Liberty University, a private, Christian college, first launches its online degree program.
2010	Congress passes the Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HCERA). This bill entwines with the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and essentially subsumes the student loan program under federal control. Previously, private banks helped finance most of the student loan program. This measure was thought to (1) generate interest revenue, helping finance the ACA, and (2) save the student loan program from collapse. Critics say HCERA only propped up an overinflated student loan industry. China begins to dominate internet usage, with 450 million Chinese internet users (about twenty-five percent more than the entire population of the US).
2011	The Department of Education issues new regulations which require online colleges to satisfy all state-level educational requirements. This mandate places a huge regulatory burden on online colleges. Additionally, the same regulatory measures mandate a strict rubric using credit hours to measure learning, instead of competencies or other measures. In August, TheBestSchools.org launches, offering critical ranking and assessment of online colleges. The Royal Wedding (England) is the biggest internet event up to that point. UCLA opens its Internet History Center, based in the lab were the first internet (ARPANET) signal was relayed.
2012	Udacity launches Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on behalf of Harvard and MIT.
2013	University of Florida–Online launches, becoming the first online-only public university.
2015	The internet is reclassified, on March 12, as a public utilit so it can be, legally speaking, more easily regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. Because of its potential impact on “net neutrality” and free speech online, this remains a controversial subject.
2016	The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, ICANN, on October 1, assumes full independent control of its portion of influence over the internet when the US federal government lets its joint contract lapse. Effectively, federal control is shifted into private and independent control among the members of ICANN.
2017	This timeline of the history of online education is written, and you just finished reading it. Congratulations! You’re making history!

 

Sources

• https://www.internetsociety.org/internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet/
• https://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/
• http://www.internethalloffame.org/internet-history/timeline
• http://www.worldwidelearn.com/education-articles/history-of-distance-learning.html
• http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/
• http://history-computer.com/
• https://www.cnet.com/news/youtube-started-as-an-online-dating-site/