History of Internet Education
Internet education is typically used to describe using the Internet to acquire a college degree or other form of certification. You once had to physically go to a school or class for this, but now, with the advent of the Internet, many students are enrolling in online educational courses.
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1960s
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The roots of online education can be traced back to the 1960s. In 1960, technicians and scientists at the University of Illinois created PLATO. PLATO, short for Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations, was the first computer-based learning system that allowed students at terminals to access lessons, tests and other schooling information from remotely located professors. Later, in 1969, the United States Department of Defense created ARPANET (the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). According to AllOnlineSchools.com, ARPANET would eventually evolve into the Internet.
1980s
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The 1970s were quiet and fairly uneventful in regards to the evolution of online education, but in 1988 IRC (Internet Relay Chat) was invented. IRC allowed people to have real-time conversations either one-on-one or in a chat room setting. In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee conceived and created the World Wide Web; now known as the Internet, this series of connected servers store documents that would later become known as webpages. Later that year, the University of Phoenix -- which was established in 1976 by Dr. John Sperling, and already focusing on distance learning for working adults -- opened its e-doors, becoming the first university to offer online degrees.
1990s
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As the Internet gained in popularity throughout the 90s, so did online education. In 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications released the web browser known as Mosaic. According to AllOnlineSchools.com, Mosaic offered a user-friendly interface that made it the first browser to receive wide praise. At this point, online education was gaining viability.
2000s
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With the advances in audio and video broadcasting technology, online education reached new levels in the 2000s. According to OnlineColleges.net, 3.94 million students took at least one online course in the 2007 fall semester. That is 20 percent of all higher education students in the United States. Now, OnlineColleges.net states that roughly half of the 4,500 physical colleges in the U.S. offer online education to some degree.
Free Classes
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Although they usually do not offer college credits, many colleges have begun to offer entire courses online for free. Well-respected schools such as MIT, UC Berkeley and Stanford offer many courses that include video lectures, written material and audio presentations. These courses are ideal for those who simply want to learn a specific subject or improve a skill without having to actually enroll in school. Many of these courses are identical to the courses that paying students get, meaning you will gain a college-level understanding of your desired subject.
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