I am writing an autobiography, mainly for my family, but it does cover some key moments in the development of open and online learning. I thought I would share these as there seems to be a growing interest in the history of educational technology.
Note that these posts are NOT meant to be deeply researched historical accounts, but how I saw and encountered developments in my personal life. If you were around at the time of these developments and would like to offer comments or a different view, please use the comment box at the end of each post. (There is already a conversation track on my LinkedIn site).
The German FernUniversität was founded in 1974 by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, and headquartered in Hagen, to provide flexible distance education, with teaching starting in 1975. It was Germany’s first distance-learning university, and was inspired by the UK’s Open University. Its founding Rector was Otto Peters, a leading scholar on distance education, who as early as 1967 published a book on the ‘industrial’ model of distance education that preceded the establishment of open universities. His book provided a conceptual description of the key attributes of distance education, although I doubt that either Harold Wilson or Jennie Lee or their advisers on the UK Open University ever read it.
Source: Tony Bates - Online Learning — Read the full article on the original site ↗