Glenn R. Jones

Jones built Jones Intercable into one of the larger U.S. cable operators. In 1987 he launched Mind Extension University (later Knowledge TV), a cable channel that distributed college courses from multiple institutions. Seeing the potential of the emerging internet, he founded Jones International University in 1993 as a pure online institution with no physical campus for instruction. In 1999 the Higher Learning Commission granted it regional accreditation, making it the first entirely online U.S. university to achieve that status.

Jones framed the effort as democratizing access to education. He also developed software platforms for online course delivery that other institutions could use. Jones International University remained smaller than the large for-profit online providers and closed in 2015; remaining students were offered transfer pathways to Trident University International, which named a business school after him. Jones was inducted into the United States Distance Learning Association Hall of Fame and the Cable Television Hall of Fame.

Jones proved that regional accreditors would approve a university that existed only online once student-support and academic systems met their standards. His path from cable-based course distribution to a fully internet-based university marked a clear transition in delivery technology.