Emergence of eLearning

Edward Thorndike (1874 - 1949)

Thorndike developed several laws of learning, including the premise "other things being equal, exercise strengthens the bond between situation and response" (McGovern and Bray, 2007). He was also the main pioneer of normative testing.

John Dewey (1859 - 1952)

Dewey believed the development of curricula should be based on student self-interests. This shift was based on his belief that children are primarily motivated by what they are most interested in, rather than on reward punishment (McGovern and Bray, 2007).

Donald Kirkpatrick (1924 - present)

Don Kirkpatrick is best known for his influential 'four level' model for evaluating training interventions. He first published his ideas in 1959, in a series of articles in the US Training and Development Journal, but are better known from a book he published in 1975 entitled, Evaluating Training Programs.

Don was inducted into the HRD Hall of Fame in 1997 for his work in evaluation, and his model remains the most prevalent approach for evaluating training programs.

Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1936)

Pavlov won the Nobel Prize for physiology in 1904 for his work on digestion, but instructional designers know Pavlov for his work with "conditioned reflex" (or conditioned response), now labeled "classical conditioning." The most notable demonstration involved ringing a bell whenever his dogs were fed; eventually, the ringing of the bell could trigger the dogs to salivate, even without the presence of food.

Pavlov remains one of the most recognized behaviorists in history.

John Watson (1878 - 1958)

John Watson is the first to coin the term behaviorism. He studied how learning affects our behavior (i.e., our learning alters the way in which we perceive our world, the way in which we perceive stimuli, and ultimately the way we behave).

Much of his research involved how children learn. In one experiment, he exposed a young child to a rat. The child was not afraid of the rat. He then would introduce the rat along with a loud noise. Eventually, the child began to fear the rat. The morality of such experiments would be questioned years later, contributing to behaviorism's "falling out of favor" in the learning community.

Jean Piaget 1896 - 1980

Piaget is best known for his Stage Theory of Cognitive Development. Through observing his children, he posed that children progress through four stages in the following order: 1st Sensorimotor (birth to two years) where the child builds understanding of him/herself and the world around them through interactions with the environment; 2nd Preoperational (two to four years) where the child cannot yet understand abstract concepts and needs concrete physical situation; 3rd Concrete Operations (seven to eleven) where the child begins to think abstractly, creating logical structures that explain his/her experiences; and 4th Formal Operations (eleven to fifteen) where cognition reaches its final form - the child is capable of deductive and hypothetical reasoning.

B. F. Skinner (1904 - 1990)

Skinner was a pure behaviorist. He called his approach "radical" behaviorism; it removes "introspection" as a variable or construct in his experiments, focusing only on what can be purely observed in the physical world.

Basically, Skinner's approach as applied to learning deals with using reinforcement to strengthen the relationship between stimuli and response (e.g., providing praise as a consequence for performing desired behavior), as well as to weaken that relationship (e.g., withholding praise or providing punishment as a consequence for a non-desired behavior).

Robert M. Gagne (1916 - 2002)

Some instructional designers consider Gagne to be the father of the profession. He is best known for proposing that there are five categories of learning (now consolidated into the three domains of learning we recognize today; the Cognitive Domain (intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, and verbal information), Psychomotor Domain (motor skills), and Affective Domain (attitudes).

Gagne had grounding in the behaviorist school of learning, but was also one of the most influential cognitivists. His Schema Theory Schema explains how knowledge is interpreted, stored, and retrieved for processing in internal knowledge structures known as schema. His Nine Events of Instruction provide a way to organize instruction to support the development of a learner's schema.

Educational Radio

In 1921, the first educational radio license issued to University of Salt Lake. Instructional material is broadcast by radio to students seeking credit or certification. Students range from children in pre-school to adults seeking professional education. The radio programs are used in formal classroom settings, as well as by individual students/listeners continuing their education.

Educational radio replaced correspondence courses for distance learning and is often recognized as the official beginning of "instructional technology."

Educational Television

As television finds its way into homes over the 1930s and 1940s, educational television replaces educational radio. In 1953, the FCC reserves 242 channels for education. In 1967, educational television is officially renamed "public television." Public television incorporates "formal" (classroom) and "informal" (cultural, children's, lifelong learning) instructional programming.

World War II Training Films

In 1940, the US Army public relations office requests Warner Brothers Studios to produce short films for educating the public about the military. The US Army Air Corps First Motion Picture Unit (FMPU) was officially organized in 1942. The FMPU produced more than 400 training films for the military during World War II alone.

Streaming

In 1995, RealAudio Player is released. This is one of the first media players capable of streaming audio and video over the Internet. Streaming allows the user to instantly view video and/or listen to audio without the file completely loading first, thus creating a much smoother user experience.

Podcasting

A February 2004 article in The Guardian coins the term "podcasting" to refer to the audio files users can download and listen to on their computer or mobile device. The term combines the words "broadcasting" and "iPod," the most prevalent device used to listen to the files. Users can select individual podcast episodes from various repositories (e.g., iTunes) or can "subscribe" to a series using an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) aggregator, which will automatically search for and download new episodes automatically.

YouTube

Started in 2005 by three former PayPal employees, YouTube is a video-sharing website users can upload, share, and view videos over the Internet. Although the website houses thousands of hours of "cute" pet videos and people getting hit in the groin, YouTube also contains more instructional videos than any other source. For example, a search of "Photoshop" yields 1.5 million videos submitted by users demonstrating how to perform specific tasks in Photoshop.

ARPANET (1970 - 1989)

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) is the world's first operational packet switching network, and is considered the beginning of the Internet.

ARPANET is primary used to share files, however is used to send the first eMail (1971), and hosts the first computer-to-computer chat (1972).

TELENET (1974 - 1979)

Telenet is the first commercial version of ARPANET, making a packet-switched network available to the general public. GTE acquires Telenet in 1979, and it is finally acquired by Sprint and rebranded "Sprintnet."

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) governs connection and the transport of data between software processes on devices. Internet Protocol (IP) provides addressing, routing, and other functions over a network. Together, TCP/IP form the standards that allow the Internet to function.

World Wide Web (WWW)

The introduction of browsers using HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and HyperText Markup Language (HTML) allow computers to display pages with complex layouts of text and graphics. Users can still access text-based Usenet newsgroups and electronic bulletin boards, as well as share files via FTP, but this new development transformed the landscape, making the Internet available to a more general audience than the original "nerd herd" that dominated its early days.

Note: WorldWideWeb was actually the first web browser. It was later renamed Nexus to avoid confusion between the software and the web itself.

Web 2.0

The advent and wide adoption of social networking tools (e.g., MySpace and later Facebook) as well as collaboration tools (e.g., blogs, newsgroups, chatrooms) create a different world of usage. To delineate the contrast between the web of yesterday and the web of today, the term Web 2.0 is introduced.

The focus of Web 2.0 is not any technological specification, but rather the cumulative change in how developers and end-users interact with the web.

Note: Tim Berners-Lee, recognized as the "creator" of the World Wide Web (not the Internet) calls Web 2.0 "jargon," as the vision for the web was always centered on collaboration. He considers the shift the "Read/Write Web."

Web 3.0

Web 3.0, which some call the Semantic Web, is the next generation of the web. It is projected to include TV-quality open video, 3D simulations, and ultra-high broadband (or better utilization of current available broadband) across televisions, computer, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices.

Web 3.0 will generate its own algorithms and get to know its individual users, becoming a highly personalized way to interact with an endless supply of curated media and content.

HTML5

At its heart, HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language version 5.0) moves the support for multimedia inside the browsers, thus simplifying the coding and eliminating the requirement of plug-ins to play sound and video files. This leap basically makes tools like Flash unnecessary (it has been called Flash's last nail in the coffin, the first being Apple's decision not to support Flash on their mobile devices).

Sir Isaac Pitman's Correspondence College

In 1840, Britain introduces one penny rural postage. Soon after, Sir Isaac Pitman launches the first recognized bi-directional correspondence course. Pitman provided instruction in shorthand via post and students would use the instruction to translate a Bible verse in shorthand on a post card and mail it to Pitman for grading.

Later, this system of instruction grew to become the Phonographic Correspondence Society, which then became the Sir Isaac Pitman Correspondence College.

International Correspondence Schools of Scranton

Pennsylvania's Mine Safety Act of 1885 requires miners and inspectors to pass examinations on mine safety. The test is complex, especially for those immigrant miners who spoke little or no English.

Thomas J. Foster begins publishing a question and answer column in the Shenandoah Herald (a mining journal that would change its name several times over the years). The number of incoming questions becomes so great that Foster begins preparing corresponding courses on coal mining.

In 1891, "The Colliery Engineer School of Mines" is formed. By 1895, the school is officially known as the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton (ICS for short).

Recently rebranded the Penn Foster Career School, the ICS of Scranton is still a profitable business (2012), offering more than 80 regionally and nationally accredited career diploma and certificate programs, including business, child care, construction, IT systems, Web design, project management, education, and hospitality management.

National University Extension Association

In 1915, the universities and colleges engaged in extension programs create the National University Extension Association (NUEA). Their purpose is "the establishment of an official and authorized organization through which colleges and universities and individuals engaged in educational extension work may confer for their mutual advantage and for the development and promotion of the best ideals, methods, and standards for the interpretation and dissemination of the accumulated knowledge of the race to all who desire to share in its benefits."

In 1980, NUEA changes its name to the National University Continuing and Adult Education Association (NUCEA), and then in 1998 to University Continuing and Adult Education Association (UCEA).

Transition to Distance Learning

Although the roots of the distance learning and college extension programs continue to thrive to this day, the advent and adoption of wide reaching broadcast technologies and innovations transform the classic "correspondence model," as originally conceived and implemented by Pitman almost 100 years earlier.

One cannot claim correspondence schools died in the wake of these new technologies; rather we would see this as a transition to distance learning as it is known today, leveraging all technologies to reach learners wherever they may be.

ENIAC

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) is the first general-purpose electronic computer. It is a Turing-complete digital computer capable of being reprogrammed to solve a full range of computing problems.

Trackball

In 1952, Tom Cranston and Fred Longstaff invent the trackball; a precise pointing device for the Royal Canadian Navy's DATAR system. The trackball remains more precise than its “upside-down” cousin, the mouse (invented 11 years later), and is less prone to gathering dust and dirt on its sensors (a big problem with pre-laser mice).

Note: This first trackball used a Canadian five-pin bowling ball.

Mouse

Douglas Engelbart (with assistance from Bill English) invents the first mouse prototype in 1963. They name the pointing device “the mouse” because the original device resembles a mouse, the cord attached to the rear being its long, thin tail.

Note: Although the mouse would eventually become the principal navigation device for Windows and Apple computers, Engelbart’s patent runs out before it became widely used in personal computers over 20 years later, so he never receives royalties for the invention.

Apple II

The Apple II is released in 1977, and becomes the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer (later considered the home computer). The computer transforms Apple Computer (now Apple, Inc.) from a hobbyist supplier into a successful commercial company. By the end of production of the series in 1993, over 5 million have found their way into homes and schools.

Touchscreen

A touchscreen is an electronic visual display that can detect the presence and location of a touch of a finger (or stylus) within the display area. Early touchscreens emerge in the early 1970s and are incorporated into the PLATO systems to allow learners to explore items on the screen and answer “where is the xyz?” graphic identification questions.

A touchscreen enables the user to interact directly with the display without the requirement of a mouse or touchpad, paving the way for the on screen keypads on today’s smart phones and tablets.

Personal Computer (PC)

In 1981, basically caught off guard by the success of Apple Computer’s II series, IBM releases the IBM PC (PC stands for Personal Computer). Thinking their established name in the computer business would allow them to quickly outpace Apple, IBM rushes to market with a system based on an open architecture. This strategy backfires, as competitors are able to sell similar computers (referred to as “clones”) at much cheaper prices.

Although IBM never quite makes the impact they planned on market share, the clones do. With IBM PCs and most clones running on the disc operating system (DOS) provided by Microsoft, the PC market launches Microsoft into domination of the computer operating system business. Thirty years later, Microsoft remains the largest software corporation in the world.

CGA Monitor

In 1981, the CGA (Color Graphics Adapter) is introduced. It supports a maximum screen resolution of 640x200 with a 4-bit color depth (16 colors). CGA monitors can display basic “chunky” color images, but resolution (640 x200 for two color graphics, or 320x200 for four color graphics) made detailed images (e.g., photos) non-feasible to display.

Interactive Videodisc (IVD)

In 1981, Michael Allen “hacks” together an Apple IIe and a videodisc player and develops software to display specific still images or run specific ranges of video through the computer based on user selections or actions, thus creating the first true interactive videodisc (IVD) training.

VGA Monitor

The introduction of the higher resolution Video Graphics Array (VGA) monitor in 1987 brings an increased screen resolution of 800x600 with an 8-bit color depth (256 colors). Although still a far cry from the HDMI high definition capabilities to come, instructional designers can now include photos and gradient shaded images in their products, bringing a new level of “fidelity” to their learning (i.e., they can get away from the gamey feel of earlier products).

CD ROM

In 1987, Internet and network speeds are still too slow to smoothly deliver high bandwidth images (speech and music audio, as well as high resolution photos, video, and animation) to the learners’ workstation. The CD ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory) changes all that, allowing designers to include such media in their courseware.

Note: CD’s cannot be “updated,” so maintenance includes reproduction and distribution of replacement discs. High-speed network and Internet would eventually solve that problem.

Sound Card

Most sound chips of the 1970’s and 1980’s produced “square waves,” limiting them to “beeps,” “boops,” and basic musical tones. In 1988, companies like AdLib, Turtle Beach, and Creative Labs start producing sound cards capable of playing more complex audio, including human voice and recorded music.

Although mostly aimed at the growing “game” market, instructional designers dove on the new technology to leverage voice and realistic audio in their training products. It is here the term "multimedia" is born, typically referring to "text, graphics, and audio."

Smart Phone

A smart phone is a mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform. Early on, “apps” (programs that run on the mobile platform) replaced PDA functions (calculator, address book, calendar, etc.). Soon, smart phones would become portable audio and video players, video and still cameras, Skype videoconferencing tool, GPS navigation devices, and Web browsers supporting high-speed Wi-Fi access to the Internet.

In other words, a smart phone is like having a computer in your pocket... oh yeah, it also works as a phone.

Tablet

Original predictions of the tablet computer had it replacing the laptop computer. More accurately, the tablet is just a large smart phone. Although most cannot be used as a phone, all tablets can run the same apps as the smart phone platform.

The obvious advantage of the tablet is that the larger screen makes it a more comfortable browser and reader (i.e., you don't need a mobile version of your web page or eLearning modules, and you are less likely to cause eye strain on longer courses).

Behaviorism

The basic premise of behaviorism is that people can be conditioned to respond in a preferred way to specific stimuli. Everyone has heard of Pavlov's dogs who, after being conditioned by being fed any time a bell rang, salivated at the sound of a bell - this is classic conditioning, a behaviorist strategy. Behaviorism lost favor in the learning field, losing ground to cognitivism.

In behaviorism, learning occurs when a given stimulus results in a desired behavior (i.e., a behavioral change).

Cognitivism

The basic premise of cognitivism is that people gain understanding of their world through organized linkages called schema (plural: schemata). Cognitivists believe that instruction can be structured and delivered in such a way that it creates the desired schemata within the learner (Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction is probably the single best cognitivist strategy to achieve learning).

In cognitivism, learning occurs when the learner builds the desired schemata.

Constructivism

The basic premise of constructivism is that an individual must build their understanding of the world through interacting with the world, observing the results, and reflecting to construct meaning. To a constructivist, a presentation alone cannot achieve deep learning - the learner must engage in some activity (e.g., a hands on practice) and reflect in order to achieve learning.

In constructivism, learning occurs when the learner constructs their understanding of the world through experience and reflection.

PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operations)

In around 1960, PLATO becomes the first computer assisted instruction system. PLATO was started by the University of Illinois, and was later absorbed into the Control Data Corporation (CDC).

The PLATO team were innovators and first by more than a decade to incorporate such online learning strategies as forums, message boards, online testing, e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multi-player games. By the late 1970s, the PLATO system included thousands of terminals networked across multiple mainframe computers.

Ultimately PLATO failed for two reasons: 1) the proprietary programming language (TUTOR) was very difficult to learn, and 2) courseware development costs averaged $300,000 per delivery hour, driving them out of the computer based training market they themselves had created.

HyperCard

HyperCard is an application program for Apple Computer, Inc. that was among the first successful hypermedia systems (i.e., it supports complex branching structures) before the World Wide Web. HyperTalk, the programming language under the hood, is intuitive and easy to learn (i.e., for the first time, you do not have to be a programmer to create computer based training).

HyperCard was also cheap. In 1987, a retail copy of HyperCard sells for $49.95, and is included for free with all new Macs sold at the time.

Authorware

Dr. Michael Allen had helped build the library of interactive courseware for PLATO. In 1987, he released Authorware under his new company by the same name. Benefitting from the lessons learned from overly complex authoring languages, Authoware is an easy to use flowline and icon based authoring tool. Each branch of the flowline represents a decision point or menu, and each icon represents a separately programmed element (e.g., "Display" puts something on the screen, "Question" asks the learner a question, "Calc" performs a calculation).

Authorware is to enjoy years as the market leader in computer based, multimedia training.

Articulate

Articulate is the branded name for a suite of eLearning tools offered by the company of the same name. Their "studio" includes Engage (creates non-scorable interactions within a PowerPoint-based course), Quizmaker (creates scorable interactions, quizzes, and surveys), and Presenter (converts a PowerPoint presentation into a Flash-based self-paced course).

The reason for their rapid rise in market share is that Articulate operates as a PowerPoint add-on. PowerPoint is quick and easy to learn, so by plugging in Articulate, almost anyone can create eLearning.

Note: The danger of "anyone can create eLearning courseware" should be a red flag to any experienced instructional designer. Just because anyone "can" create courseware doesn't mean anyone "should" be assigned to create courseware.

PowerPoint

PowerPoint uses a "slide" analogy; each "slide" of a presentation is like a separate slide in a projected slide show. Prior to projected PowerPoint "decks," instructors would carry a folder containing overhead transparencies - framed acetate sheets with print and basic images to be displayed on a screen.

Although PowerPoint is actually a very powerful tool with high-end branching and media capabilities, the vast majority of users only learn how to create screen after screen of graphics and text, then leverage the multitude of animated transitions between slides. Such bad design has spawned the term, "Death by PowerPoint" to describe these presentations. However, bad design is bad design, and the designer, not the tool, should be blamed.

Director

In 1988 a tool known as "VideoWorks Interactive Pro" is reborn as Director. Based on the authoring language Lingo, Director introduces object oriented programming to the computer based multimedia training community. The program uses a "timeline" and different screen and media elements are represented by "actors" on the timeline. Following the analogy, the programmer acts as a director, telling each of the actors when to appear, what to do and for how long, and when to leave.

Thanks to its surprisingly powerful language, Director is the main tool for authoring complex courseware, including much of the CD ROM based training market.

Dreamweaver

With the immediate boom of the Web, it is clear that computer based training will need to leverage the Internet for wide-spread distribution. Although the basic programming language of the Web (HTML - HyperText Mark-up Language) is easy to learn, more complex programming required to create interactive courseware for the Web browser is very difficult for anyone short of a professional programmer to master.

Dreamweaver solves this problem with two successful strategies. First, the program offers users the option of a code view (displays the line-by-line code for each Web page), a design view (known as the WYSIWYG or What You See Is What You Get, as it shows what the end page will look like), or a split screen mode that shows both views. Second, the program allows for plug-ins (called "extensions") that allow for highly specialized functionality to be added with a forms-based interface.

Coursebuilder is an earlier computer based training extension that allows the user to add common interactions (e.g., multiple choice, matching, fill in the blank) to their pages, and even create scored tests.

Captivate

Captivate is the perfect storm of integration. Its "ancestors" include a pure screen capturing utility (Flashcam) and an eHelp program (RoboDemo). Macromedia purchases the toolset and creates the eLearning version of RoboDemo, naming the new product Captivate.

At its most basic functionality, the tool can take a "screen-cam" capture of a set of user tasks (e.g., using a word processing tool to create, name, and save a new document), then allows the user to annotate each step of the procedure, adding interactivity ("now YOU try it") along the way as desired. Under the hood, Actionscript allows advanced users to create highly complex functionality.