TESU Offered Online Courses in 1987

[KenJ]

If anyone on this forum was transported back in time to 1987, the chance of them taking this class was slim to none 

I don't think the point was that it was a popular or easily accessible option for average people, but that it was an innovative early example of such an option.

I took exception to the word "offering." It was more like "had." So yes, they "had" an experimental online class. 

I'm not disparaging TESU in any way.

[davewill]

Very cool. They could have used Gopher, FTP, and newsgroups to conduct the courses. They were already doing correspondence courses, and using a different delivery wouldn't have been too tough.

[quigongene]

SMTP was also well established at that point.

[KenJ]

"Between the beginning of 1986 and the end of 1987 the number of networks grows from 2,000 to nearly 30,000."

Just because a technology exists, doesn't mean it's available to the masses. Nobody had personal, home internet connection back in 1987. Only people in certain "sectors" took these first courses. I don't want people to get the impression that online courses were somehow available, or even an option, to the average person in 1987. They were not. Not by a long shot.

[jsd]

"Between the beginning of 1986 and the end of 1987 the number of networks grows from 2,000 to nearly 30,000."

Just because a technology exists, doesn't mean it's available to the masses. Nobody had personal, home internet connection back in 1987. Only people in certain "sectors" took these first courses. I don't want people to get the impression that online courses were somehow available, or even an option, to the average person in 1987. They were not. Not by a long shot.

i don't think that's the claim anyone is making.



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Does it say the name of the college courses taught?  How many took them?

"Fittingly, the first course offered was 'The Adult Years: Continuity and Change,' and 15 students were enrolled."

https://www.tesu.edu/campusuite25/modules/news.cfm?seo_file=University-Celebrates-30-Years-of-Online-Course-Delivery&grp_id=23530

[KenJ]

The claim was made that they have "offered" online courses since 1987. I am fully aware that they have had online courses since then, but they were not offered to the general student population.

The best way to put it:

"Most people taking an online course in 1987 would be like giving a caveman a fkn lighter." (and by most, I mean just about everyone).

[jsd]

So... the course was offered to the 15 people who were enrolled in that first class. That's still an offering, even if it was to a limited pool of people. This is a very odd semantics argument.

[cookderosa]

The claim was made that they have "offered" online courses since 1987. I am fully aware that they have had online courses since then, but they were not offered to the general student population.

The best way to put it:

"Most people taking an online course in 1987 would be like giving a caveman a fkn lighter." (and by most, I mean just about everyone).

I have to agree. In late 1990s, I sat on a committee with Eastern Iowa Community College District - the largest CC district in Iowa, as we discussed a HUGE grant that we got and were going to share with the second largest CC district in Iowa - DesMoines CC. With the grant, the colleges were going to LINK TOGETHER using Fiber Optics and tv monitors to display a teacher from 1 campus across all the connected campuses in real time. This was groundbreaking technology. This tech would be available to our district at only 1 of our campuses, and in only 1 of our rooms- we went about the task of debating and discussing which department would get to offer a class this way. These course offerings were listed in an independent catalog offered by the *new* Iowa Community College Consortium. It was badass. Number of students to jumped at this new technology? Not many. Most were worried that it wouldn't transfer. That was the start of our own personal "online learning" that was more accurately distance learning.
This is a 2-prong problem. (1) is the technology - which TESC (not TESU) claims to have had available, which is great. (2) Early Adopters / Lighthouse technology. This market segment is already small, now filter by those who would have interest in taking a college course, those who would pay for it, and those who would have known about it.
My money says those 15 students friends and family and paid nada.

[sanantone]

So... the course was offered to the 15 people who were enrolled in that first class. That's still an offering, even if it was to a limited pool of people. This is a very odd semantics argument.

This is ultimately all that matters. TESU made a credible claim. It doesn't matter how many people were able to take the course. TESU didn't claim that it was accessible to the masses. TESU offered an online course to 15 people in the 1980s, which was highly innovative and helped push distance education forward. This thread is turning into whether or not a large group of people could ride on an airplane with the Wright Brothers.

[High_Order1]

"Between the beginning of 1986 and the end of 1987 the number of networks grows from 2,000 to nearly 30,000."

Just because a technology exists, doesn't mean it's available to the masses. Nobody had personal, home internet connection back in 1987. Only people in certain "sectors" took these first courses. I don't want people to get the impression that online courses were somehow available, or even an option, to the average person in 1987. They were not. Not by a long shot.

I was staying out of this until that statement.

I know for a fact I did.

Besides a GEnie and CompuServe account, I *think* I had a micronet account prior to that.


Apparently, someone did:

https://www.wired.com/2009/09/0924compuserve-launches/

Now, I was a kid, and we fought for telephone time, so I had to go to the local community college and sneak time on their cluster, but it was available. And, I took a class there sort of on the computer, to learn how to use the thing. So, I don't feel it was as cut and dry as you remember it.

The device I used most, besides kludged together items, was a commodore VIC-20. That was on the shelf in 1980, and I know because it was a Christmas gift, and I still clearly recall standing in (circuit city?) lusting after the timex-sinclair 1000!

In that box was a free month on CompuServe, and I still remember the password: vowelli-unable. I was ten. For younger people, it had no hard drive, no monitor (you hooked it to a teevee), no wifi, no nothing! Eventually they figured out how to pervert a tape recorder (google it) into a storage medium, and you could buy an add on that allowed you to hook it to a home telephone line (also google this).

If you don't believe me, I bet that thing is still in a closet at my Mom's...
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