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Encyclopedia of Online Degrees

230 entries, told as a single timeline: the people, institutions, platforms, events, and terms that built online higher education.

People
36
Institutions
56
Websites & platforms
43
Events
86
Terms
9

A century in the making

92 entries carry a firm date, from John Sperling’s birth in 1921 to today’s AI proctoring debates. The rest are catalogued below under Still on the map.

Showing 92 of 92 dated entries
  1. The 1920s1 markers
  2. 1921Person
    John SperlingJohn Glen Sperling (1921-2014) was the founder of the University of Phoenix and a central figure in the modern for-profit higher...
  3. The 1930s2 markers
  4. 1930Person
    Glenn R. JonesGlenn R. Jones (1930-2015) was a cable television entrepreneur from Colorado who founded Jones International University, the firs...
  5. 1932Institution
    Southern New Hampshire UniversitySouthern New Hampshire University (SNHU) is a private nonprofit university based in Manchester, New Hampshire, that grew into one...
  6. The 1950s1 markers
  7. 1951Person
    Mike LeavittMichael Okerlund Leavitt (born 1951) is a former three-term governor of Utah and a principal co-founder of Western Governors Univ...
  8. The 1960s2 markers
  9. 1960Event
    PLATO system at University of IllinoisThe PLATO system, developed at the University of Illinois by Donald Bitzer and his colleagues, was an early computer-based teachi...
  10. 1969Event
    Open University royal charterThe Open University received its royal charter on 23 April 1969, establishing the United Kingdom's national distance-teaching uni...
  11. The 1970s4 markers
  12. 1970Event
    PLATO IV system expansionPLATO IV was the expansion of the PLATO system developed at the University of Illinois, an early and remarkably large computer-as...
  13. 1971Event
    Open University first studentsThe Open University enrolled its first students in January 1971, an event that marked the practical beginning of one of the most...
  14. 1976Event
    Founding of University of PhoenixIn 1976, John Sperling founded the University of Phoenix in Arizona to serve working adults with evening classes.
  15. 1976Institution
    University of PhoenixUniversity of Phoenix is a for-profit university founded in 1976 by John Sperling to serve working adults who could not attend tr...
  16. The 1980s6 markers
  17. 1980Event
    Early Usenet and bulletin-board education experimentsIn the 1980s, before the web existed, educators began experimenting with bulletin board systems and Usenet as environments for te...
  18. 1980Event
    Electronic University NetworkThe Electronic University Network was an early venture that helped colleges offer online courses over personal computers and dial...
  19. 1982Event
    Western Behavioral Sciences Institute online programIn 1982 the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, an independent research organization based in La Jolla, California, began offe...
  20. 1985Event
    Connected Education online master’sConnected Education offered what is often cited as the first fully online master's degree, a media studies program delivered thro...
  21. 1987Event
    Launch of Mind Extension UniversityMind Extension University, a cable television channel founded on November 15, 1987 by cable entrepreneur Glenn R. Jones, was an e...
  22. 1989Event
    University of Phoenix first online classesThe University of Phoenix began offering fully online courses in 1989, making it one of the first large institutions to treat onl...
  23. The 1990s16 markers
  24. 1990Event
    Regional accreditors develop online review practicesIn the 1990s and 2000s the U.S. regional accrediting bodies that evaluate colleges and universities developed specific review cri...
  25. 1990Event
    Sloan Asynchronous Learning Network activityIn the 1990s the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation supported research and practice in asynchronous online learning through its Asynchron...
  26. 1990Event
    Title IV distance education regulatory frameworkThe Title IV distance education regulatory framework refers to the body of federal student-aid rules adapted, from the 1990s onwa...
  27. 1993Event
    Founding of Jones International UniversityGlenn R. Jones founded Jones International University as a fully online institution with no instructional campus.
  28. 1993Event
    Graphical web browsers enable course sitesBetween 1993 and 1995, graphical web browsers such as Mosaic and Netscape made browser-based course delivery practical for non-sp...
  29. 1993Institution
    Jones International UniversityJones International University was a fully online university founded in 1993 by cable entrepreneur Glenn R. Jones and located in...
  30. 1994Event
    Apollo Education Group initial public offeringThe Apollo Education Group initial public offering of 1994 took the parent company of the University of Phoenix public and provid...
  31. 1995Event
    Western Governors Association meeting conceiving WGUIn 1995 a meeting of the Western Governors Association convened in Utah and produced the concept for Western Governors University...
  32. 1996Event
    Release of WebCTWebCT, a course tool developed at the University of British Columbia, was released in 1996 and became one of the first widely use...
  33. 1997Event
    California Virtual UniversityThe California Virtual University, established in 1997, was an early state-level effort to coordinate online education by creatin...
  34. 1997Event
    Founding of BlackboardThe founding of Blackboard Inc.
  35. 1997Event
    Founding of Western Governors UniversityGovernors of 19 western states incorporated Western Governors University as a private nonprofit online university.
  36. 1997Institution
    Western Governors UniversityWestern Governors University is a private nonprofit online university founded in 1997 by the governors of 19 western U.S. states...
  37. 1998Event
    New York University Online launchNew York University launched an online division in 1998, making it one of the first traditional research universities to plunge i...
  38. 1999Event
    Jones International University regional accreditationIn 1999 the Higher Learning Commission, part of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, granted regional accredita...
  39. 1999Event
    WGU launches first degree programsWestern Governors University opened its first degree programs in 1999, beginning operations as an online institution built from t...
  40. The 2000s14 markers
  41. 2000Event
    Babson/Online Learning Consortium enrollment reportsThe Babson Survey Research Group, working with the Sloan Consortium and later the Online Learning Consortium, published a series...
  42. 2000Event
    Closure of AllLearnThe Closure of AllLearn in 2006 marked the end of an ambitious joint online learning venture among three of the world's most pres...
  43. 2000Event
    Closure of FathomColumbia University's Fathom online learning venture closed in 2003 after failing to achieve sustainable scale, becoming one of s...
  44. 2000Event
    Expansion of prior learning assessmentThe 2000s and 2010s saw the expansion of prior learning assessment, the practice of turning life experience, work history, milita...
  45. 2000Event
    Quality Matters programQuality Matters is a program that developed a widely used, research-based rubric for evaluating the quality of online course desi...
  46. 2000Event
    Respondus LockDown Browser adoptionRespondus LockDown Browser, introduced in the 2000s, became one of the most widely adopted tools for securing online exams in hig...
  47. 2002Event
    MIT OpenCourseWare launchMIT OpenCourseWare was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's commitment to publish the materials of virtually all its cours...
  48. 2002Event
    Moodle 1.0 releaseMoodle 1.0, released in August 2002 by Australian educator and programmer Martin Dougiamas, established the open-source learning...
  49. 2006Event
    Blackboard acquires WebCTThe acquisition of WebCT by Blackboard, completed in 2006, joined the two leading early learning management system vendors and co...
  50. 2008Event
    Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK08)The Connectivism and Connective Knowledge course, commonly known as CCK08, is widely cited as the first cMOOC, the first massive...
  51. 2008Event
    Founding of 2U2U, founded in 2008, is an online program management (OPM) company that partners with universities to deliver and market online d...
  52. 2008Event
    ProctorU foundingProctorU was founded in 2008 to provide online proctoring for high-stakes examinations taken by distance learners.
  53. 2008Event
    Term MOOC coinedThe term MOOC, an acronym for massive open online course, was coined in 2008 by Dave Cormier, a Canadian educator, to describe an...
  54. 2009Event
    Post-9/11 GI Bill and online institutionsThe Post-9/11 GI Bill, enacted in 2009 as Chapter 33 of the federal veterans education benefits system, gave a new generation of...
  55. The 2010s35 markers
  56. 2010Event
    Borrower defense to repayment expansionsBorrower defense to repayment is a federal process that allows students to seek discharge of their federal student loans when the...
  57. 2010Event
    Canvas gains major market shareDuring the 2010s, Instructure's Canvas displaced Blackboard to become the most common learning management system at many American...
  58. 2010Event
    Canvas NetworkThe Canvas Network was an open course platform associated with the Canvas learning management system, launched in November 2012 a...
  59. 2010Event
    Coursera degree partnerships expandDuring the 2010s, Coursera expanded from hosting free open online courses into offering full university degree programs delivered...
  60. 2010Event
    edX MicroMasters launchIn September 2016, edX launched its first 19 MicroMasters programs, a series of graduate-level online courses developed with 14 d...
  61. 2010Event
    Expansion of online proctoringThe 2010s and 2020s saw the rapid expansion of online proctoring, as companies such as ProctorU, Examity, and Respondus scaled th...
  62. 2010Event
    Federal state-authorization rules for distance educationFederal state-authorization rules for distance education, first given explicit form in 2010, require institutions to satisfy stat...
  63. 2010Event
    Google Career Certificates on CourseraGoogle Career Certificates are short, job-focused training programs that Google launched in the late 2010s as part of its Grow wi...
  64. 2010Event
    Growth of online program management (OPM) companiesThe 2010s saw the rapid growth of online program management companies, firms that build and market online programs for traditiona...
  65. 2010Event
    Growth of open educational resources in online coursesThe 2010s saw a marked increase in the use of open educational resources, or OER, in online courses, driven by the appeal of free...
  66. 2010Event
    IBM SkillsBuild and related credentialsIBM SkillsBuild is a free education program that IBM launched in the 2010s to teach technology and career-readiness skills throug...
  67. 2010Event
    Lumina Foundation support for CBELumina Foundation, an independent private foundation based in Indianapolis, became in the 2010s one of the most influential phila...
  68. 2010Event
    NC-SARA establishmentThe National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements, generally known as NC-SARA, was established in late 2013 to...
  69. 2010Event
    Peak of for-profit online enrollmentAround 2010, for-profit institutions accounted for a large majority of students enrolled in fully online degree programs in the U...
  70. 2010Event
    Rise of microcredentials and badgesThe rise of microcredentials and digital badges in the 2010s brought higher education a new category of short, skills-focused cre...
  71. 2010Event
    Stackable credentials initiativesStackable credentials initiatives, which gained traction in the 2010s, describe efforts by universities and online platforms to l...
  72. 2010Event
    Wave of for-profit college closuresDuring the 2010s, multiple large for-profit college chains closed campuses or exited markets amid regulatory pressure, declining...
  73. 2011Event
    Canvas LMS launchThe launch of the Canvas learning management system in 2011 marked the arrival of a modern alternative to the established LMS pla...
  74. 2011Event
    Gainful Employment rule (first version)The first federal gainful employment rule, published in June 2011, was the Department of Education's initial attempt to give lega...
  75. 2011Event
    Stanford Introduction to AI free online courseIn fall 2011, Stanford University professors Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig offered a free online version of their Introduction...
  76. 2011Site & platform
    UdacityUdacity is a for-profit online education company that grew directly out of the Stanford University open course that first brought...
  77. 2011Event
    Zoom foundingZoom is a videoconferencing company whose platform became the default synchronous tool for many online and remote classes after 2...
  78. 2012Site & platform
    CourseraCoursera is an online learning platform founded in 2012 by Stanford professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, launched with a missi...
  79. 2012Event
    Founding of CourseraIn 2012, Stanford professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng founded Coursera as a platform for universities to offer open online cou...
  80. 2012Event
    Founding of edXIn 2012, MIT and Harvard announced edX, a nonprofit platform for free and open online courses, building on earlier MITx work by M...
  81. 2012Event
    Year of the MOOCThe Year of the MOOC is the label widely applied to 2012, when massive open online courses moved from experimental projects to a...
  82. 2013Event
    Udacity–Georgia Tech–AT&T OMSCS partnership announcedIn 2013 a partnership among Udacity, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and AT&T was announced, and it led to the creation of t...
  83. 2014Event
    Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN)The Competency-Based Education Network, known as C-BEN, is a national membership organization formed in 2014 to support colleges...
  84. 2014Event
    Gainful Employment regulations (2014)The Gainful Employment regulations of 2014 were Obama-administration rules tying federal aid eligibility for career programs to d...
  85. 2014Institution
    Georgia Tech Online Master of Science in Computer ScienceThe Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) at the Georgia Institute of Technology is a low-cost online graduate deg...
  86. 2015Event
    Closure of Jones International UniversityThe closure of Jones International University, announced in 2015, ended the first fully online university in the United States, a...
  87. 2015Event
    Corinthian Colleges collapseThe collapse of Corinthian Colleges in 2015 saw one of the largest for-profit higher education companies in the United States clo...
  88. 2016Event
    ITT Technical Institute closureThe closure of ITT Technical Institute in 2016 ended one of the largest for-profit higher education companies in the United State...
  89. 2017Event
    Department of Education OIG audit of WGUThe Department of Education's Office of Inspector General audit of Western Governors University, published in September 2017, que...
  90. 2019Event
    Gainful Employment rollbackThe Gainful Employment rollback was the 2019 rescission, carried out by Congress with the support of the Trump administration, of...
  91. The 2020s11 markers
  92. 2020Event
    COVID-19 emergency remote pivotIn the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the large majority of U.S. colleges and universities to shift instruction onl...
  93. 2020Event
    Emergency remote teaching training surgeIn the spring of 2020, colleges and universities across the United States suddenly had to move instruction online, and institutio...
  94. 2020Event
    Integration of AI tools in online coursesThe integration of AI tools in online courses describes the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, and especially genera...
  95. 2020Event
    Rapid faculty adoption of LMS and video toolsWhen the COVID-19 pandemic forced colleges and universities to close their campuses in early 2020, large numbers of faculty who h...
  96. 2020Event
    Scrutiny of OPM revenue-share modelsThroughout the 2020s, online program management companies that take a percentage of tuition in exchange for building and running...
  97. 2020Event
    Updated guidance on regular and substantive interactionThe updated guidance on regular and substantive interaction refers to the Department of Education's clarified definitions of what...
  98. 2020Event
    Zoom becomes default synchronous toolWhen the COVID-19 pandemic forced campuses to close in 2020, Zoom videoconferencing experienced massive adoption as the tool of c...
  99. 2021Event
    Coursera initial public offeringCoursera went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, a milestone that marked the maturation of the massive open online co...
  100. 2021Event
    edX acquired by 2UIn 2021, the online education provider 2U acquired the nonprofit learning platform edX, paying about $800 million to its owners,...
  101. 2021Event
    Post-COVID hybrid normalizationThe period roughly from 2021 to 2023 saw hybrid learning become a normalized part of campus life, as many institutions retained l...
  102. 2023Event
    AI writing detection tools in online coursesAI writing detection tools are software services that institutions adopted and debated after 2022 for flagging generative-AI use...

Still on the map

138 entries with no single founding date. Filter with the search box above, or browse the grid.

138 entries
2USite & platformAcademic EarthSite & platformAcademic Partnerships client institutionsInstitutionAcademy of Art UniversityInstitutionAmerican Council on Education credit recommendationsEventAmerican InterContinental UniversityInstitutionAmerican Public University SystemInstitutionAnant AgarwalPersonAndrew NgPersonArizona State University OnlineInstitutionAshford UniversityInstitutionAsynchronous learningTermAthabasca UniversityInstitutionBabson Survey Research GroupSite & platformBlackboardSite & platformBrandman UniversityInstitutionCalifornia Virtual CampusInstitutionCanvasSite & platformCanvas StudioSite & platformCapella UniversityInstitutionCharles WedemeyerPersonCharter Oak State CollegeInstitutionChip JohnstonePersonClass CentralSite & platformClayton ChristensenPersonCLEP and DSST exam credit in online pathwaysEventColorado State University GlobalInstitutionColorado Technical UniversityInstitutionColumbia SPS online programsInstitutionCompetency-based educationTermCorrespondence educationTermCouncil for Higher Education AccreditationSite & platformDaphne KollerPersonDave CormierPersonDeVry UniversityInstitutionDistance educationTermDonald BitzerPersonEDUCAUSESite & platformedXSite & platformElliott MasiePersonExamitySite & platformExcelsior UniversityInstitutionFlorida Virtual SchoolInstitutionFor-profit collegesTermFull Sail UniversityInstitutionFutureLearnSite & platformGeorge SiemensPersonGeorgetown University online programsInstitutionGoogle ClassroomSite & platformGrand Canyon UniversityInstitutionGreg CappelliPersonHarold WilsonPersonHigher Learning CommissionSite & platformIndira Gandhi National Open UniversityInstitutioniTunes USite & platformJennie LeePersonJohns Hopkins online programsInstitutionJorge Klor de AlvaPersonKalturaSite & platformKaplan UniversityInstitutionKhan AcademySite & platformLearning management systemTermLiberty University OnlineInstitutionLinda HarasimPersonLinkedIn LearningSite & platformLisa Marsh RyersonPersonMartin DougiamasPersonMichael CrowPersonMichael SaylorPersonMicrosoft Teams for EducationSite & platformMilitary Tuition Assistance and online programsEventMIT OpenCourseWareSite & platformMOOCTermMOOC ListSite & platformMoodleSite & platformMurray GoldbergPersonNational UniversityInstitutionNC-SARASite & platformNoodle PartnersInstitutionNorthwest Commission on Colleges and UniversitiesSite & platformOnline degreeTermOnline Learning ConsortiumSite & platformOpen CultureSite & platformOpen Universities AustraliaInstitutionOpen UniversityTermOpen University of CataloniaInstitutionOregon State University EcampusInstitutionPamela PeasePersonPanoptoSite & platformPaul LeBlancPersonPearson online program servicesInstitutionPenn State World CampusInstitutionPeter NorvigPersonPeter SperlingPersonProctorUSite & platformPurdue University GlobalInstitutionQuality MattersSite & platformRegular and substantive interaction requirementEventRespondusSite & platformRobert MendenhallPersonRoy RomerPersonSal KhanPersonSaylor AcademySite & platformScott PulsipherPersonSebastian ThrunPersonSkillshareSite & platformSloan Consortium (Sloan-C)Site & platformSophia LearningSite & platformStephen DownesPersonStraighterLineSite & platformStrayer UniversityInstitutionStudy.comSite & platformTecnológico de Monterrey OnlineInstitutionTerri BishopPersonThe New School / Connected EducationInstitutionThomas Edison State UniversityInstitutionTony BatesPersonTrident University InternationalInstitutionTurnitinSite & platformUdemySite & platformUNC Online programsInstitutionUniversity of Arizona Global CampusInstitutionUniversity of Florida OnlineInstitutionUniversity of Illinois PLATO systemInstitutionUniversity of Illinois Springfield OnlineInstitutionUniversity of London External ProgrammeInstitutionUniversity of London International ProgrammesInstitutionUniversity of Maryland Global CampusInstitutionUniversity of Massachusetts GlobalInstitutionUniversity of South AfricaInstitutionUniversity of Wisconsin ExtensionInstitutionUSC online programsInstitutionWalden UniversityInstitutionWalter PerryPersonWCETSite & platformWebCTSite & platformWiley Education ServicesInstitutionZoom for EducationSite & platform

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