Distance education

The term covers correspondence courses, radio and television broadcasts, satellite delivery, and internet-based programs.

The practice is older than the internet by more than a century. Documented examples begin with 18th-century mail lessons; 19th-century universities such as the University of London and U.S. land-grant institutions offered correspondence degrees. Mid-20th-century experiments used radio, television, and later satellite. The UK Open University, chartered in 1969, scaled radio and television instruction for working adults at a national level and became a widely cited model.

The internet changed the interaction model. Earlier media were mostly one-way or slow-feedback. Networked computers allowed discussion boards, email with instructors, and shared documents, producing the three forms of interaction often cited in the literature: with content, with the instructor, and with other learners. That shift is what turned many distance programs into what people now call online degrees.

By the early 2000s, U.S. enrollment in distance courses (including fully online degrees) was measured in the millions. The 2010s and 2020s saw traditional universities add large online portfolios alongside for-profit and specialized online institutions.

Example: a student in rural Montana in 1985 might have watched televised lectures and mailed assignments. The same student in 2005 could log into a course site, post to a forum, and receive feedback within days without waiting for the postal service.

Correspondence education is the mail-based subset. Online degree is the internet-based subset. Distance education is the umbrella. Hybrid programs that require regular campus attendance are not pure distance education even if they use online tools.