For all its hindrances, online learning proved itself during the pandemic. I finished the last semester of graduate school without my friends during the lockdown. I even defended my dissertation over Microsoft Teams. But even amidst the disappointment, I had to admit that the connection in our workshop classes felt richer than it ever had before. We shared links to outside resources in the chat, talked more freely in the breakout rooms, and saw each other’s faces more than we usually could with the classroom seating arrangements. The online setting also helped us get more personal. We held up funny coffee mugs from our kitchens and showed off our apartment decor in the background. And of course, everyone enjoyed the spontaneous cat appearances. In my final semester, I realized how fruitful online environments can be. When students’ guards are lowered and social anxiety doesn’t pose the same threat, productive, communityled learning can occur. While distance learning is more prominent than it has ever been, that doesn’t mean it’s new! The idea of distance learning has been around in the U.S. for nearly 300 years. By offering online undergraduate degrees, Cedarville is adding to a rich history of online learning across the country and building on its previous successes in graduate and dual enrollment online courses. A QUICK HISTORY OF DISTANCE LEARNING Hope Kentnor at the University of Denver traces the earliest example of distance education to March 20, 1728, when Caleb Philips advertised mailing shorthand lessons to students from a distance in the Boston Gazette. As populations expanded and more people began building homes farther away from major cities, educators had to get inventive. Now, if you had the mail, you could have access to education. This idea took off, soon including learning through radio and television. More than a century later, Illinois Wesleyan College became the first institution to offer full degrees through mail correspondence. As a new era of technology spread across the country, University of Phoenix was the first to offer an online program in 1989 through CompuServe. By 2005, other institutions had entered the mix, and entire online programs were being established. By offering online undergraduate degrees, Cedarville is adding to a rich history of online learning across the country and building on its previous successes in graduate and dual enrollment online courses. NOT NEW. JUST NEXT. CEDARVILLE'S ONLINE LEARNING LEGACY BY DR. BRYANA FERN 12
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