“Distance learning” is going from a buzzword to a household name, which is amusing to anyone who is at all familiar with the history of “correspondence schools”. The Internet has simply added a lot of electronic muscle to an idea that has been around at least since an advertisment appeared in the Boston Gazette for a shorthand course. The date of the paper was March 25, 1728. Walter Cronkite, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Barry Goldwater, Charles Shultz and many others have enjoyed the benefits of “distance learning” by correspondence courses.

But does it work? I’m actually quite surprised that anyone would seriously wonder in view of how long the questions has been under scrutiny. A flurry of studies from the 1920’s onward have consistently shown that students who use correspondence courses do as well or better than their formal classroom counterparts. My own experience in studying languages demonstrates that studying a language on your own using a good learning method is usually more effective than a classroom.

As far back as 1883 the Chautauqua Institute was authorized by the State of New York to award degrees by home study, and as many as 60,000 students from up to 10,000 communities were taking courses at a time. Clearly there was an interest, and the State of New York thought they were doing something right. By contrast, a small distance learning college was set up in San Jose, California, but the state approval process proved too demanding and (arguably) impossible for a small institution to become licensed. Undaunted, the school pulled up stakes, moved to Arizona, and the renamed University of Phoenix went on to make education history. Today I am told that they hope to have over 500,000 students enrolled by the end of 2006.

One service that I think needs to be done is a better collection of available home study and distance learning programs. Usually you have to go to individual colleges and look at their web sites to find anything, although sites like www.allonlineschools.net look like a good start.

The problem, though (at least I think it’s a problem) is that far too many of these courses are for job training or career enhancement and only for that. Now I have nothing against getting a better job or a promotion. I’m all for that “living indoors” and “maintaining your body weight” fad. Maybe I’m just a hopeless romantic, but I would love to see more of the humanities or sciences available through distance programs for people who just want to learn how a thunderstorm forms or better appreciate “Ode to a Grecian Urn”, just for the hell of it. Perhaps something like the Free University movement that came and went from the late 60’s through the early 80’s and still survives here and there as Learning Annexes or community enrichment programs.

The Distance Education Training Council is the largest and most important body for accrediting distance learning programs, and they have some interesting publications on this subject as free downloads on their web site. Much of what I’ve cited here came from a white paper titled “The Effectiveness of the Home Study Method”. It’s worth a look.