The History of Distance Learning

When we think about distance learning, we immediately imagine virtual classes, held over the internet, right?

The name is suggestive, but that's not exactly how EaD (Distance Learning) came about. In this article, we will tell you a little 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 means of communication such as correspondence, radio, television, telephone and now the internet, the main and most current means of communication.

Happy reading!

The beginning

According to studies and research, distance learning began in 1728 in Boston, in the 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.

Classes for this course were taught through correspondence, and for a long time, this was the main means of conducting distance learning courses.

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

In the 19th century, this teaching method began to spread to other countries. Germany began offering language courses, and London began offering undergraduate courses, both in distance learning format.

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 learning courses, whether professional or academic, received study materials by mail and watched video classes at home on electronic devices, 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” , or in Portuguese, “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 at any time and from any place.

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, making them 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 “off-the-shelf training” model was made possible, in which it is possible to purchase courses from a third-party company and apply them to your LMS platform or simply purchase a third-party platform with the courses already available.

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

Conclusion

It is interesting 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 taking correspondence courses today? Nowadays, we can't even imagine that this possibility would be viable, right?

Technology is here, advancing more and more and making processes easier. Today, we take training courses or even attend college remotely, from the comfort of our own home or anywhere in the world, using our portable devices.

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

Werkey is a professional training portal, with online courses for individual and corporate students . Individual students can purchase courses directly from our marketplace, and for corporate users - Werkey for Companies , we provide a customized service.

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