Internet Courses

—New generation of distance education

History of distance education
 

Advantages of internet courses

History of Distance Learning

A. First generation: (the 19^th and the beginning of the 20^th Century)

The major means of communication are printed materials, usually customized textbooks that contains lesson outlines and exercises. Students complete assignments based on the textbook instructions and “mail” the assignment to the instructor, who provides feedback correspondence learning.

B. Second generation: (started in the early 1970’)

Delivering instruction through radio, television, recorded audio-tapes and correspondence tutoring. Audio-conferencing (conducting a class using the telephone) is also part of the major means.

C. Third generation: ( started form 1980’)

Benefited from satellite technologies and the emergence of communication networks facilitating the delivery of analog and digital content to computer workstations. These technologies also enable new forms of real time interaction with two-way videoconferencing., or one-way video and two-way audio communication.

D. Forth generation—Internet

Internet technology empowers the joint exploration of the delivery mechanisms of previous generation, adding stronger collaborative learning elements. Asynchronous and synchronous interactions on the network are the main instructional components of the virtual classroom, and the instructional materials (lesson notes) are only the background material, from which class “discussion” originate.

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