and the use of the Internet moved beyond the scientific community to more commercial use. The ability to create and share knowledge increased exponentially. Technology continues to enhance learner engagement.
Technology also drives how students experience education at a distance. Correspondence courses were delivered via mail and then by radio and television. Later, two-way synchronous communication between the teacher and learner was accomplished via telephone and interactive television. As online instruction has increased, so have discussions concerning online learning theory, online course designs, and devices on which this instruction is delivered, including tablets and mobile telephones. Scholars have also explored the best practices for teaching online and in blended courses, and they have also predicted how technology will continue to change the learning landscape.
This attention to online learning is warranted as participation in online learning is rising. In the academic year 2015–2016, 42.9% of undergraduates had taken distance education courses (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019b) compared to 20% in 2008 (Radford, 2011). Eighty-three percent of the students taking distance education courses in the higher education context are undergraduates (Allen & Seaman, 2017). Individuals may also take web-facilitated or blended courses. See Table 2.2 for definitions of online learning.
Table 2.2 Definitions of Types of Online Learning
SOURCE: King, 2017, p. 207.
| Proportion of content delivered online (%) | Type of course | Typical description |
| 0 | Traditional | Course with no online technology used—content is delivered in writing or orally |
| 1–29 | Web facilitated | Course that uses web-based technology to facilitate what is essentially a face-to-face course; may use a course management system (CMS) or web pages to post the syllabus and assignments |
| 30–79 | Blended or hybrid | Course that blends online and face-to-face delivery; substantial proportion of the content is delivered online, typically using online discussions, and typically has a reduced number of face-to-face meetings |
| 80–100 | Online | A course in which most or all of the content is delivered online; typically has no face-to-face meetings |
Technology in adult education is a broad topic. Authors have written books on adult learning and technology (Bryan & Wang, 2013; Kidd, 2009; King, 2017). In this chapter, we provide a brief overview of the history of distance education. This is followed by popular online learning theories. We review the challenges of and best practices for online learning as well as the place of technology in our everyday, informal learning. We conclude the chapter by examining the future of technology in adult education.
History of Distance Education: From Mail to MOOCs
Online learning is the latest iteration of distance education which is defined as “Education that uses one or more technologies to deliver instruction to students who are [physically] separated from the instructor” (Allen & Seaman, 2017, p. 6), although some have argued that online learning is a “distinct branch of the educational evolutionary tree” because learners can more easily collaborate in online learning whereas distance education provided more self-directed access to learning (Garrison, 2017). Correspondence courses united teachers and learners as far back as the 1830s in Sweden (Holmberg, 1986 as cited in Picciano, 2019). In the United States, the Society to Encourage Studies at Home was founded by Anna Eliot Ticknor in 1873 (Caruth & Caruth, 2013). Anna, the daughter of Harvard University professor George Ticknor and cousin to Harvard University president Charles William Eliot, indicated that the “Society's purpose was to encourage ladies to develop the habit of devoting time every day to study” (p. 143). The society served over 7,000 women who could pick among six disciplines to study including “English, History, Science, French, German, Art” (p. 143). The society “was revolutionary and provided women an opportunity to obtain a liberal education aside from the elite women's colleges” (p. 144).
Sherow and Wedemeyer (1990) have presented a detailed history of correspondence courses beginning in 1890 when the University of Wisconsin offered industrial and technical courses as well as courses toward bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees via mail. When University of Wisconsin President Charles Richard Van Hise saw the success of “commercial correspondence schools” (p. 13), he appointed “William Lighty as full time Director of Correspondence Instruction” to develop and oversee liberal arts instruction and Louis Reber as the director of Wisconsin's Extension Division who took charge of the industrial training courses (p. 14) and by 1914, extension programs at 32 universities in the United States were offering correspondence courses.
Universities used radio and television to supplement correspondence courses. Nearly half the population of the United States had access to educational programming via radio in the 1920s and by the mid-1950s, most educational stations were part of the National Association for Educational Broadcasters and they received financial support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Ford Foundation's Fund for Adult Education (Sherow & Wedemeyer, 1990). Television gained popularity in the United States and by 1952, 242 stations out of 2,053 stations broadcast educational programming including the University of California's “Continental Classroom” (p. 18). In 1982, Oklahoma State University began the National University Teleconference Network (NUTN) and today 100 colleges are in the organization (Picciano, 2019).
Online universities began appearing in the late 1960s. British Open University (OU) launched in 1969 and it was “built on the premise that television, radio, correspondence and external assessment systems could be combined successfully for educational purposes” (Weinbren, 2015, p. 32). Weinbren traces the history of the OU program and notes that courses utilized program learning and tutors to engage learners in critical thinking, discussion, and collaboration. The OU was one of the first schools to use computers for instruction where learners could share links and create community online. The school expanded to Asia, the United States, and Middle East by the twenty-first century with the mission of spreading Western values. Schedule flexibility, credits for prior learning, modular learning, and interactions with tutors attracted learners to OU. In the United States, the State University of New York—Empire State College was established in 1971 for nontraditional learners. Like OU, it also gives credit for life experiences and allows students to design their own degree programs within 12 areas of study (SUNY Empire State College, 2019). It has 35 physical locations and offers associate's, bachelor's and master's degrees (SUNY Empire State College, 2019).
Online education emerged in the 1990s. Online distance education (ODE) “reflects the cognitive learning theory and pedagogies based on self-study” (Harasim, 2017, pp. 186–187). This method “uses a correspondence model of course delivery, self-study and individual communication with a tutor” (p. 187). Essentially, this approach is an updated version of the correspondence course model. In his review of the history of online education, Picciano (2019) notes that the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded the Learning Outside the Classroom Program in 1992, which became the Anytime, Anyplace Learning Program in 1993. This program funded projects where asynchronous learning occurred. Over the next 20 years, the program provided almost 350 grants totaling approximately $72 million dollars. Penn State World Campus, Rio Salado Community College, the State University System of New York, and the University of Central Florida were some of the schools and universities systems to receive these monies. By the early 2000s, “large urban universities in New York, Chicago, and Milwaukee were funded to develop and
