According to www.Merriam-Webster.com, distance education is "education that takes place via electronic media linking instructors and students who are not together in a classroom." This is a modern definition though, as distance learning existed before the internet was used as its primary medium. This great infographic (http://www.straighterline.com/online-education-resources/online-education-tools/infographic-history-of-distance-education/) shows how distance education has evolved from it's start in 1728 in Boston with lessons sent by mail, Penn State offering lessons on the radio in 1922, Stanford University founding the Stanford Instructional Television Network for part-time engineering students in 1968, through to 1976 when the University of Phoenix was founded to "give working adults flexible higher education options." (Straighterline) In 2010, 83% of CEOs and small business owners in the USA consider online degrees to be as credible as traditional degrees. Today, more than 50,000 searches are done each month for keywords relating to "online universities." (Straighterline)
I have studied through distance learning for many years, as I believe that we should never stop trying to learn something new. I remember the first distance learning course that I did, probably about 16 or 17 years ago, was a mathematics accounting course to help me with an aspect of my new job at the time. I received all the assignments through the mail, and had to allow for sending time when I submitted my assignments to the University. They had set up 'assignment drop-off points" all over the country (I was living in South Africa at the time) and you could deposit your assignment into one of those boxes and it would find it's way to your teacher. Before I took that course, I remember being amazed at the concept of learning in this way - I was worried about how I would complete all of the assignments without the input of my teachers or discussion with my peers. Then, once I started I realized that there was support, just in another way. I had to be well disciplined and plan in advance to do my assignments so that if I ran into difficulty I would have enough time to contact my teachers to get help. Before starting this course, my ideas of distance education had changed from 17 years ago - I am now aware of the way in which the internet has changed learning and that the medium of instruction has been revolutionized by the materials that can now be delivered online. My definition of "distance education" was actually more for something called "online learning" which is strongly linked to the concept of 'connectivism'. Wikipedia defines online learning as comprising of "all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. The information and communication systems, whether networked or not, server as specific media to implement the learning process." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_learning)
The definition of distance learning is always changing because distance educators want to find the best way to deliver their content to their students. Twenty years ago, that was via the postal service - all assignments were sent and received through the mail and telephonic feedback or help could be sort. Email exchanges were also frequent between teacher and student. Very little of the peer to peer interaction that we see today existed for distance learners twenty years ago. More recently, as the internet has enabled distance educators to upload their content to the 'cloud' and share online, distance educators have significantly changed the way in which content is delivered as well as the learning experience of the student. Students are now a part of a collaborative learning platform that enables social interaction and discussion. The online learner (renamed from the 'distance learner') is a part of a learning community and is no longer the solitary practitioner they were in the past. "Distance" is no longer an issue - the internet means that students from all over the world can participate in online courses and learning and benefit from close to the same levels of social interaction within their group that students actually attending a college do. The factors that drive this change are the need for distance educators to deliver content quickly and comprehensively, cost and profit margin (more online learners = greater profit) and technological advances. These changes are not based on the student's technical knowledge or profession - they are based on the online educator's technical knowledge. The average student will be able to access the internet, watch videos and navigate an online library. The online educators who design the learning platforms (the instructional designers) are the ones that will educate the students further in what is possible with technology and learning. If they experiment with new ideas and push their designs so that content can be delivered in a way that will further enhance online learning, the student will certainly come along for the ride. It is the online educator that is 'driving' the process of change in many respects. That said, there are certain expectations that students have when learning online. They expect to have the content delivered to them online (as well as through text, although this should be minimal), there should be interactive content and multimedia presentations.
Online education changed dramatically recently with the introduction of MOOC (Massive Online Open Course), defined by wikipedia as "an online course aimed at large scale interactive participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for the students, professors and teaching assistants." Harvard and MIT both offer courses for free in this format, to anyone who wants to do them! This is going to revolutionize learning! It is a fantastic way to educate the World - anyone with an internet connection can learn for free from excellent institutions like MIT and Harvard. I recently joined a course in computer programming offered by Udacity and am really engaged in this new learning platform. Other excellent universities are offering MOOCs, through their online platforms: Coursera, Udacity, edX and NovoED. The future of online learning is looking up for all of us life-long learners!
Here is a link to a PREZI that I made about Distance Learning: http://prezi.com/igeffkkdagbc/present/?auth_key=zbxc3q3&follow=d4nd8kecbe67
References:
1. Wikipedia's definition of "online learning" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_learning
2. Infographic on the history of online education: http://www.straighterline.com/online-education-resources/online-education-tools/infographic-history-of-distance-education/
3. Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Coleman, C. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–6 7.