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Experimental television teaching programs were introduced in the 1930s, with broadcast television courses coming in 1951. Satellite technology came in 1960, having varying success, and became cost-effective in the 1980s.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the coming of fiber-optic communications systems, there was expansion of live, two-way, high-quality audio and video interaction in distance education. Full-motion, two-way interactive video, data (Internet), and voice services were beamed to an untold number of locations at the same time. All this became the backbone for computer telecommunications and asynchronous, Internet-based programs offered to distance learners. In addition, computer-mediated communications, computer conferencing, and computer networks have all become convenient ways to distribute materials to learners all over the world.
Numerous other things that appeared included short-wave radio, telewriter, audio teleconferencing, videoconferencing, multimedia technical centers, one-way television transmission with “talking heads,” two-way audio (radio), two-way video / audio (TV), audio telephone and lecture notes, video satellite and telephone call back, telephone networks with printed materials and discussion at multiple sites, and others too numerous to mention.
All of these distance education systems have had writers like Holmberg (1986) identify numerous political, economic, and educational reasons for offering distance learning, including: (a) to increase educational offerings, (b) to serve educational needs of adults with jobs and family responsibilities in addition to social commitments, (c) to offer individual adults including disadvantaged groups and society-study opportunities, (d) to provide professionals with advanced-level learning, (e) to support educational innovation, and believing that this would be an economical use of educational resources.
‘Andragogy’ as a term was coined and first appeared in published form in 1833 by a German School Teacher, Alexander Kapp (a replica may be found at the following website: www.andragogy.net) Andragogy became popularized in the 1970s and 1980s in the United States, primarily through the work of Malcolm Knowles and others. However, Lindeman (1926) was credited with its original introduction into the United States.
Knowles (1970, 1980) defined andragogy as the “art and science of helping adults learn.”