Editing Distance education (section)

== Technologies ==
[[File:Digital carrel classroom.webp|thumb|3D design of [[cubicle]] desks to get [[computers in the classroom|computers to the desk]] for a [[Computational thinking#computational education|computational education]]]]
In synchronous learning, all participants are "present" at the same time in a virtual classroom, as in traditional classroom teaching. It requires a timetable. [[Web conferencing]], [[videoconferencing]], [[educational television]], and [[instructional television]] are examples of synchronous technology, as are [[direct-broadcast satellite]] (DBS), [[internet radio]], [[live streaming]], [[telephone]], and [[web-based VoIP]].<ref name="lever-duffy">{{cite book |last1=Lever-Duffy |first1=Judy |last2= McDonald |first2= Jean B |others= Ana A. Ciereszko, Al P. Mizell
 | title= Teaching and Learning with Technology
 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9wxKAAAAYAAJ | access-date = 23 January 2011 | edition = 3rd
 |date=March 2007 | publisher=Allyn & Bacon | isbn=978-0-205-51191-4 | page=377}}</ref>

Web conferencing software helps to facilitate class meetings, and usually contains additional interaction tools such as text chat, polls, hand raising, emoticons etc. These tools also support asynchronous participation by students who can listen to recordings of synchronous sessions. Immersive environments (notably [[SecondLife]]) have also been used to enhance participant presence in distance education courses. Another form of synchronous learning using the classroom is the use of robot proxies<ref>{{Cite news |last=Brown |first=Robbie |date=2013-06-07 |title=A Swiveling Proxy That Will Even Wear a Tutu |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/08/education/for-homebound-students-a-robot-proxy-in-the-classroom.html |access-date=2023-02-17 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> including those that allow sick students to attend classes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Robot brings classroom to sick students |url=https://www.norwichbulletin.com/story/news/education/2014/11/10/robot-brings-classroom-to-sick/35775732007/ |access-date=2023-02-17 |website=Norwich Bulletin |language=en-US}}</ref>

Some universities have been starting to use robot proxies to enable more engaging synchronous hybrid classes where both remote and in-person students can be present and interact using [[telerobotics]] devices such as the Kubi Telepresence robot stand that looks around and the Double Robot that roams around. With these telepresence robots, the remote students have a seat at the table or desk instead of being on a screen on the wall.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://designstudio.educ.msu.edu/from-a-spot-on-the-wall-to-a-seat-at-the-table/|title=From a Spot on the Wall to a Seat at the Table – CEPSE/COE Design Studio|access-date=25 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108162011/http://designstudio.educ.msu.edu/from-a-spot-on-the-wall-to-a-seat-at-the-table/|archive-date=8 November 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Meyer |first=Leila |date=2015-02-24 |title=Michigan State Tests Telepresence Robots for Online Students |url=https://campustechnology.com/articles/2015/02/24/michigan-state-tests-telepresence-robots-for-online-students.aspx |access-date=2023-02-17 |website=Campus Technology |language=en-US}}</ref>

In asynchronous learning, participants access course materials flexibly on their schedules. Students are not required to be together at the same time. Mail correspondence, which is the oldest form of distance education, is an asynchronous delivery technology, as are [[message board]] forums, [[e-mail]], [[video]] and [[audio recording]]s, print materials, [[voicemail]], and [[fax]].<ref name="lever-duffy" />

The five characteristics of technological innovations (compatibility, observability, relative advantage, complexity, and trialability) have a significant positive relationship with the [[digital literacy]] of users. Besides, observability, trialability, and digital skill were found to have a positive significant influence on [[digital literacy]].<ref name=":4" />    

The two methods can be combined. Many courses offered by both open universities and an increasing number of campus-based institutions use periodic sessions of residential or day teaching to supplement the sessions delivered at a distance.<ref name="Burns">{{cite book |last1=Burns |first1=Mary | title= Distance Education for Teacher Training: Modes, Models and Methods | url= http://go.edc.org/07xd | access-date = 10 September 2012}}</ref> This type of mixed distance and campus-based education has recently come to be called "[[blended learning]]" or less often "hybrid learning". Many open universities use a blend of technologies and a blend of learning modalities (face-to-face, distance, and hybrid) all under the rubric of "distance learning".

Distance learning can also use interactive radio instruction (IRI), interactive audio instruction (IAI), online [[virtual world]]s, digital games, webinars, and webcasts, all of which are referred to as e-Learning.<ref name="Burns"/>

=== Radio and television ===
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | audio1 = [http://www.wnyc.org/story/745-air-college-talk/ Air college talk.], 2:45, 2 December 1931, [[WNYC (AM)|WNYC]]<ref name="smarth">{{cite web | title = Air college talk. | publisher = www.wnyc.org | date = 2 December 1931 | url = http://www.wnyc.org/story/745-air-college-talk/ | access-date = 5 November 2016 }}</ref> }}
The rapid spread of film in the 1920s and radio in the 1930s led to proposals to use it for distance education.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cuban |first=Larry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uQeEn1vEUSQC |title=Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920 |date=1986-06-15 |publisher=Teachers College Press |isbn=978-0-8077-2792-8 |language=en}}</ref> By 1938, at least 200 city school systems, 25 state boards of education, and many colleges and universities broadcast educational programs for public schools.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Tyson | first1 = Levering | year = 1936 | title = Ten Years of Educational Broadcasting | journal = [[School and Society]] | volume = 44 | pages = 225–31 }}</ref> One line of thought was to use radio as a master teacher.
{{blockquote|Experts in given fields broadcast lessons for pupils within the many schoolrooms of the public school system, asking questions, suggesting readings, making assignments, and conducting tests. This mechanizes education and leaves the local teacher only the tasks of preparing for the broadcast and keeping order in the classroom.<ref>Lloyd Allen Cook.  (1938). ''Community Backgrounds of Education: A Textbook and Educational Sociology'', pp&nbsp;249–250</ref>}}

The first large-scale implementation of radio for distance education [[Distance education in Chicago Public Schools in 1937|took place in 1937 in Chicago]]. During a three-week school closure implemented in response to a [[polio]] outbreak that the city was experiencing, [[William Johnson (educator)|superintendent of Chicago Public Schools William Johnson]] and assistant superintendent Minnie Fallon implemented a program of distance learning that provided the city's [[Primary school|elementary school]] students with instruction through radio broadcasts.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Strauss |first1=Valerie |last2=Hines |first2=Michael |title=Perspective {{!}} In Chicago, schools closed during a 1937 polio epidemic and kids learned from home — over the radio |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/04/03/chicago-schools-closed-during-1937-polio-epidemic-kids-learned-home-over-radio/ |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=16 August 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=White |first1=Theresa Mary |title=Coping with Administrative Pressures in the Chicago Schools' Superintendency: An Analysis of William Henry Johnson, 1936-1946 |url=https://ecommons.luc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3615&context=luc_diss |publisher=Loyola University Chicago |access-date=15 August 2021 |date=1988|page= 126}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Foss |first1=Katherine A. |title=Remote learning isn't new: Radio instruction in the 1937 polio epidemic |url=https://theconversation.com/remote-learning-isnt-new-radio-instruction-in-the-1937-polio-epidemic-143797 |website=The Conversation |access-date=16 August 2021 |language=en |date=5 October 2020}}</ref>

A typical setup came in Kentucky in 1948 when [[John Wilkinson Taylor (educator)|John Wilkinson Taylor]], president of the [[University of Louisville]], teamed up with [[NBC]] to use radio as a medium for distance education. The chairman of the [[Federal Communications Commission]] endorsed the project and predicted that the "college-by-radio" would put "American education 25&nbsp;years ahead". The university was owned by the city, and local residents would pay the low tuition rates, receive their study materials in the mail, and listen by radio to live classroom discussions that were held on campus.<ref>Dwayne D. Cox and William J. Morison. (1999). ''The University of Louisville'', pp&nbsp;115–117</ref> Physicist [[Daniel Q. Posin]] also was a pioneer in the field of distance education when he hosted a televised course through [[DePaul University]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Vyse|first1=Stuart|title=Before Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson, There Was Dan Q. Posin|url=https://www.csicop.org/si/show/before_carl_sagan_and_neil_degrasse_tyson_there_was_dan_q._posin|website=Committee for Skeptical Inquiry|date=November 2017 |access-date=25 April 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180424223305/https://www.csicop.org/si/show/before_carl_sagan_and_neil_degrasse_tyson_there_was_dan_q._posin|archive-date=24 April 2018}}</ref>

[[Charles Wedemeyer]] of the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] also promoted new methods. From 1964 to 1968, the [[Carnegie Corporation of New York|Carnegie Foundation]] funded Wedemeyer's ''Articulated Instructional Media Project'' (AIM) which brought in a variety of communications technologies aimed at providing learning to an off-campus population. The radio courses faded away in the 1950s.<ref>Cuban. (1986). ''Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920'', pp&nbsp;19–26</ref> Many efforts to use television along the same lines proved unsuccessful, despite heavy funding by the [[Ford Foundation]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Christopher H. Sterling|author2=Cary O'Dell|title=The Concise Encyclopedia of American Radio|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dmmLAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA609|year=2011|publisher=Routledge|page=609|isbn=978-1-135-17684-6}}</ref><ref>Robert J. Taggart. (2007). "The Promise and Failure of Educational Television in a Statewide System: Delaware, 1964–1971." ''American Educational History Journal'', ''24''&nbsp;(1), 111–122. [https://books.google.com/books?id=n_eEVfDG44kC&pg=PA111 online]</ref><ref>Cuban (1986). ''Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920'', pp&nbsp;27–50</ref>

From 1970 to 1972 the Coordinating Commission for Higher Education in California funded Project Outreach to study the potential of tele-courses. The study included the [[University of California]], [[California State University]], and community colleges. This study led to coordinated instructional systems legislation allowing the use of public funds for non-classroom instruction and paved the way for the emergence of tele-courses as the precursor to the online courses and programs of today. The [[Coastline Community College]]s, The [[Dallas College|Dallas County Community College District]], and [[Miami Dade College|Miami Dade Community College]] led the way. The ''Adult Learning Service'' of the US [[Public Broadcasting Service]] came into being and the "wrapped" series, and individually produced tele-course for credit became a significant part of the history of distance education and online learning.

=== Internet ===
{{Main|Virtual education}}The widespread use of computers and the [[Internet]] has made distance learning easier and faster, and today [[virtual school]]s and [[Virtual university|virtual universities]] deliver full curricula online.<ref>{{cite book |last1 = Gold|first1 = Larry|last2 = Maitland|first2 = Christine|editor1-first = Ronald A.|editor1-last = Phipps|editor2-first = Jamie P.|editor2-last = Merisotis|title = What's the difference? A review of contemporary research on the effectiveness of distance learning in higher education|url = https://books.google.com/books?ei=ldA7TcruEZG38gODpYykCA|access-date = 23 January 2011|year = 1999|publisher = Institute for Higher Education Policy|location = Washington, DC}}</ref>

The first online courses for graduate and undergraduate credit were offered in 1985 by [[Connected Education]] through [[The New School]] in New York City, with students earning the MA in Media Studies completely online via computer conferencing, with no in-person requirements.<ref name="T.H.E.">{{cite web|url=http://thejournal.com/Articles/1997/06/01/Technology-in-Education-and-the-Next-TwentyFive-Years.aspx|title=Technology in Education and the Next Twenty-Five Years|last=Withrow|first=Frank|date=June 1, 1997|work=T.H.E. Journal}}</ref><ref name="New Scientist">{{cite magazine | url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14820045.300-carry-on-learning-learning-cyberspace.html | title=Carry on learning | author=Ray Percival | magazine=New Scientist |date=1995-11-28}}</ref><ref name="Netweaver">{{cite web | url=http://cgi.gjhost.com/~cgi/mt/netweaverarchive/000144.html | title=Connected Education, Inc. | author=Gail S. Thomas | work=Netweaver | publisher=Electronic Networking Association | date=1988-02-01 | accessdate=2008-08-25 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827214245/http://cgi.gjhost.com/~cgi/mt/netweaverarchive/000144.html | archivedate=2008-08-27 }}</ref> This was followed in 1986 by the [[University of Toronto]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tonybates.ca/2016/01/17/celebrating-the-30th-anniversary-of-the-first-fully-online-course/|title=Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the first fully online course |last=Bates|first=Tony|website=www.tonybates.ca|date=18 January 2016|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-12}}</ref> through the Graduate School of Education (then called OISE: the [[Ontario Institute for Studies in Education]]), offering a course in "Women and Computers in Education", dealing with gender issues and educational computing. The first new and fully online university was founded in 1994 as the [[Open University of Catalonia]], headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. In 1999 [[Jones International University]] was launched as the first fully online university [[Educational accreditation|accredited]] by a regional accrediting association in the US.<ref>{{cite web|title = Accreditation|url = http://www.jiu.edu/about-jiu/accreditation|publisher = Jones International University|location = US|access-date = 23 January 2011|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130421085153/http://www.jiu.edu/about-jiu/accreditation|archive-date = 21 April 2013}}</ref>

Between 2000 and 2008, enrollment in distance education courses increased rapidly almost every country in both developed and developing countries.<ref>{{cite web |last=Walton Radford |first=Alexandria |title=Learning at a Distance: Undergraduate Enrollment in Distance Education Courses and Degree Programs |url=http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012154.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111016140229/http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012154.pdf |archive-date=2011-10-16 |url-status=live |publisher=National Center for Education Statistics |access-date=30 November 2011}}</ref> Many private, public, [[non-profit]], and for-profit institutions worldwide now offer distance education courses from the most basic instruction through to the highest levels of degree and doctoral programs. [[New York University]] and International University Canada, for example, offer [[online degree]]s in engineering and management-related fields through [[NYU Tandon Online]]. Levels of accreditation vary: widely respected universities such as Stanford University and Harvard now deliver online courses—but other online schools receive little outside oversight, and some are fraudulent, i.e., [[diploma mill]]s. In the US, the [[Distance Education Accrediting Commission]] (DEAC) specializes in the accreditation of distance education institutions.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.deac.org/accred.html |title=Accreditation |publisher=DEAC |access-date=20 September 2016}}</ref>

In the United States in 2011, it was found that a third of all the students enrolled in postsecondary education had taken an accredited online course in a postsecondary institution.<ref name="Lederman2">{{cite news|last = Lederman|first = Doug |title = Growth for Online Learning |url = http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/01/08/survey-finds-online-enrollments-slow-continue-grow|access-date = 30 March 2013 |newspaper = InsideHigherEd|date = 8 January 2013}}</ref> Growth continued. In 2013 the majority of public and private colleges offered full academic programs online.<ref name="Lederman2" /> Programs included training in the [[mental health]],<ref name="Blackmore, C. 2007">Blackmore, C., van Deurzen, E., & Tantam, D. (2007). Therapy training online: Using the internet to widen access to training in mental health issues. In T. Stickley & T. Basset (Eds.) Teaching Mental Health (pgs. 337-352). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.</ref> [[occupational therapy]],<ref name="Jedlicka, J. S. 20022">Jedlicka, J. S., Brown, S. W., Bunch, A. E., & Jaffe, L. E. (2002). A comparison of distance education instructional methods in occupational therapy. Journal of Allied Health, 31(4), 247-251.</ref><ref name="Stanton, S. 20012">Stanton, S. (2001). Going the distance; Developing shared web-based learning programmes. Occupational Therapy International, 8(2), 96-106.</ref> [[family therapy]],<ref name="Maggio, L. M. 20012">Maggio, L. M., Chenail, R., & Todd, T. (2001). Teaching family therapy in an electronic age. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 20(1), 13-23.</ref> [[art therapy]],<ref name="Orr, P. 20102">Orr, P. (2010). Distance supervision: Research, findings, and considerations for art therapy. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 37, 106-111.</ref> [[physical therapy]],<ref name="Stanton, S. 20012" /> and [[rehabilitation counseling]]<ref name="Stebnicki, M. A. 20012">Stebnicki, M. A. & Glover, N. M. (2001). E-supervision as a complementary approach to traditional face-to-face clinical supervision in rehabilitation counseling: Problems and solutions. Rehabilitation Education, 15(3), 283-293.</ref> fields.

By 2008, online learning programs were available in the United States in 44 states at the K-12 level.<ref>Olszewski-Kubilius, Paula; Corwith, Susan. "Distance Education: Where It Started and Where It Stands for Gifted Children and Their Educators." Gifted Child Today, v. 34 issue 3, 2011, pp. 16–24,.</ref>

[[Internet forum]]s, online [[discussion group]]s, and [[online learning community]] can contribute to a distance education experience. Research shows that [[socialization]] plays an important role in some forms of distance education.<ref name="SRE4(13)2">{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.09.199 |title=Alleviating the Senses of Isolation and Alienation in the Virtual World: Socialization in Distance Education |journal=Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences |volume=93 |pages=332–7 |year=2013 |last1=Sazmandasfaranjan |first1=Yasha |last2=Shirzad |first2=Farzad |last3=Baradari |first3=Fatemeh |last4=Salimi |first4=Meysam |last5=Salehi |first5=Mehrdad |doi-access=free }}</ref>