The History of Distance Learning

When we think of distance education, we soon imagine virtual classes, carried out over the internet, right?

The name is suggestive, but that's not how EaD (Distance Learning) came about. In this article, we are going to tell you a little bit about the history of Distance Learning, which began in the 18th century and since then, has been following and adapting to changes in technology, passing on knowledge through academic and professional courses, in various media such as correspondence, radio, television, telephone and now the internet, the main and most current means of communication.

Good reading!

The beginning

According to studies and research, distance learning began in 1728 in Boston, United States, where a shorthand course began to be offered.

Shorthand is a more abbreviated writing method and aims to improve writing speed compared to the traditional method.

The classes of this course were done through correspondence exchange, and for a long time, this was the main means of conducting distance courses.

At that time, it was very common to offer writing courses in the EaD model, as it was the simplest method.

In the 19th century, this teaching method began to expand to other countries. Germany began to offer language courses, and London began to offer undergraduate courses, both in the distance modality.

With the popularization of electronic devices in the 20th century, such as radio and television, distance learning began to become a very strong trend. Students who signed up for distance courses, whether professional or academic, received study materials via correspondence and watched the video lessons at home by electronic means, as was the case with Telecurso 2000 here in Brazil.

But the real revolution in distance learning happened with the emergence of the internet and the creation of the SCORM standard, in English “Shareable Content Object Reference Model” , which allowed the development of LMS (Learning Management System) platforms , which means Learning Management System, thus enabling learning to take place anytime and anywhere.

The evolution

The internet really started to work in distance learning in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when the SCORM standard was developed. With the arrival of SCORM, a standard was created so that virtual courses could be accessed through any LMS platform, becoming scalable courses.

Currently, some LMS allow courses to be created through the platform itself, with practicality, agility, reducing costs and without using SCORM.

Based on these standardizations, the model of “off-the-shelf training” was made possible, in which it is possible to buy courses from a third-party company and apply them to their LMS platform or just acquire a third-party platform with the courses already available.

It was also allowed the improvement not only of the LMS or AVA - Virtual Learning Environment virtual environments, but also the development of new technologies that improve the students' learning experience such as: corporate games, interactive videos, simulators, among others.

Conclusion

How interesting it is to know and learn how much things change and improve over the years. If it weren't for the changes and technological advances, would we still be doing correspondence courses today? Nowadays, we can't even imagine that this possibility would be viable, right?

Technology is there, advancing more and more and facilitating processes. Today, we carry out training courses or even a distance college, in the comfort of our home or anywhere in the world, and through our portable devices.

And if you have a company, education platforms help you to offer training to your employees, customers, partners and suppliers remotely.

Werkey is a professional training portal, with online courses for individual or corporate students. The acquisition of courses by individual students is directly on our marketplace, and for corporate users - Werkey for Companies , we deliver a customized service.

And if your company has courses that you would like to make available to your audiences, consult us at Teach at Werkey .