Ivy Brown

Distance Learning S-Curve

Brief Background on Distance Education The concept of distance learning is hardly new. Until late in the nineteenth century, education was rarely conceived as something for the masses. The University of Chicago established the first major correspondence learning program before the turn of the twentieth century (McIsaac & Gunawardena, 1996).

Innovators The buzzword of the late 1990s become web- based instruction as electronic messaging merged with the Web to create new learning environments.

Early Adopters ( ) Corporate virtual universities have risen to make training more timely (it’s available at any time, just in time) and less costly (no need to bring people together into a classroom). Distance learning has continually changed to adapt to new ways to mediate instruction.

Early Majority ( ) It is no surprise that the Internet has sparked a massive new interest in distance learning on a worldwide scale. Asynchronous communication is becoming more common than synchronous communication. Electronic mail ( ) is one the most pandemic communication forms in the world.

Late Majority/Laggards ( ) It takes a lot of time and effort to create an online course. Online course development should be a compensated activity, but frequently in universities it is not. Whatever the challenges, it seems clear that education must make the effort to find potential solutions and test them until we truly know how best to harness the power of the Internet to bring learning opportunities to individuals otherwise unable to participate in them.

Distance Education Today The "digital revolution" is having a major impact on distance education today. Traditional universities and new dot-com companies are jumping on the distance education bandwagon, competing to develop distance education programs that take advantage of new and improved methods of distance education delivery.

References Rogers, E. M. (1995). Diffusion of Innovations (4 th ed). New York : Free Press. Payne, C. R. (2002). Good practice and motivation in online courses. Virtual University Gazette, McIsaac, M; & Gunawardena, C. (1996) “Distance Education.” In Jonassen, D; ed. Handbook of Research for Education Communications and Technology. New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan,