Distance Education
What is now known as distance education can be traced
back at least to 1840 in England, when Isaac Pitman
began offering shorthand lessons through the medium
of mail. Correspondence study was well established in
Germany, as well, before the first American correspon-
dence study program (Society to Encourage Studies at
Home) began in 1873 in Boston. Correspondence
study attained respectability in the United States when
major programs were offered at the University of Chi-
cago and Columbia University early in the 20th cen-
tury. In 1956, Chicago City Junior College launched
TV College, using broadcast television to offer post-
secondary education degrees to viewers in the Chicago
area. It was immensely popular and it also happened
to be on the itinerary of a visiting group of professors
from the United Kingdom in 1964, a group known as
the Brynmor Jones Committee. The 1965 report of this
committee (Audio-Visual Aids in Higher Scientific
Education) was a watershed in the evolution of edu-
cational technology in the United Kingdom (MacKen-
zie, 2005), and it inspired the vision of an “open uni-
versity,” which became part of the Labour Party’s
platform in 1963.