Journal of Online Learning Research and Practice
University of Chicago Extension division was created , the “ first US school to organize correspondence courses at the college level , offering full credit for successful completion and using the same rigorous standards as in UChicago classrooms ” ( University of Chicago , n . d ., para . 3 ). In 1892 , the term “ distance education ” appeared for the first time in the United States in a pamphlet by the University of Wisconsin-Madison ( Wei & Yan , 2014 ). Similarly to the University of Wisconsin-Madison , other land grant institutions such as Penn State University in 1892 ( Dawson , 2017 ) and University of Nebraska in 1909 ( Frolik & Graham , 1987 ) offered correspondence education to increase educational outreach to students , including farmers in rural areas .
Radio , Television , and Telephone
Mass media advancements transformed distance education in the United States . The radio expanded the footprint of distance education in the 1920s . According to Ferenga and Ness ( 2015 ), “ The first educational radio licenses were granted in 1922 to the University of Salt Lake City , the University of Wisconsin , and the University of Minnesota ” ( p . 637 ). Penn State College offered the nation ’ s first broadcast courses through the radio in 1922 ( Ferenga & Ness , 2015 ). A total of 202 colleges , universities , and school boards received educational radio licenses for educational broadcasting between 1922 and 1946 ( Ferenga & Ness , 2015 ).
In the 1930s , television stations joined the evolution of distance education . The University of Iowa began using television for education in 1934 ( Syed , 2010 ). In the 1950s , Western Reserve University was the first IHE in the United States to offer a regular series of television courses ( Bower & Hardy , 2004 ; Rickman & Wiedmaier , 2011 ; Simonson et al ., 2000 ). In 1953 , the University of Houston started offering educational programming to its students and the community through its non-commercial television station KUHT-TV ( Fischer , 2013 ; Purdy , 1980 ).
Educational programming through radio and television continued to grow through the 1960s . By the mid- 1960s , the University of Wisconsin expanded its educational outreach through the telephone . In 1965 , the University of Wisconsin Extension developed the Educational Telephone Network ( ETN ) and Subsidiary Communications Association ( SCA ) as communication media to support instruction ( Parker , 1974 ). Using a private four-wire telephone network , ETN provided “ an instant and personalized educational channel for more than 100 Wisconsin communities with 173 listening locations ” ( Parker , 1974 , p . 34 ). Toward the end of decade , Stanford University launched the Stanford Instructional Television Network in 1968 and was “ broadcasting 12 graduate engineering courses on two television microwave channels to companies within a 50-mile radius of Hoover Tower ” ( Levy , 2005 , para . 3 ).
Computer Assisted Instruction
While the 1960s represented a time of educational expansion in higher edu-
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