A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is a system specifically designed to facilitate the management of educational courses by teachers for their students. It predominantly relies on computer hardware and software, enabling distance learning. In North America, this concept is commonly denoted as a "Learning Management System" (LMS).
Terminology
The terminology for systems which integrate and manage computer-based learning has changed over the years. Terms which are useful in understanding and searching for earlier materials include: "Computer Assisted Instruction" (CAI) "Computer Based Training" (CBT) "Computer Managed Instruction" (CMI) "Course Management System" (CMS) "Integrated Learning Systems" (ILS) "Interactive Multimedia Instruction" (IMI) "Learning Management System" (LMS) "Massive open online course" (MOOC) "On Demand Training" (ODT) "Technology Based Learning" (TBL) "Technology Enhanced Learning" (TEL) "Web Based Training" (WBT) "Media Psychology"
Pre-1940s
1728: March 20, Boston Gazette contains an advertisement from Caleb Phillipps, "Teacher of the New Method of Short Hand," advising that any "Persons in the Country desirous to Learn this Art, may by having the several Lessons sent weekly to them, be as perfectly instructed as those that live in Boston." 1840: Isaac Pitman begins teaching shorthand, using Great Britain's Penny Post. 1874: Institutionally sponsored distance education began in the United States US in 1874 at the Illinois Wesleyan University. 1873: The University of the Cape of Good Hope (the current University of South Africa www.unisa.ac.za, Cape Town, South Africa, Africa) was launched in Cape Town, based on the existing University of London, UK, with accreditation Boucher, M 1973 Spes in Ardius The history of the University of South Africa, Pretoria, Unisa, p. 2-8, following on the start of the South African College with a Council of Examinations in 1829 to use written examinations to certify work abilities of clerks (not verbal or status as ability). This followed similar initial developments around 1854 spearheaded by the University of London and Queen's University Ireland, and expanded to Canada, Calcutta, and India. 1890: International Correspondence Schools (ICS) is launched by newspaperman Thomas J. Foster in Scranton, Pennsylvania and becomes the world's largest study-at-home school. 1883: The Correspondence University of Ithaca, New York (a correspondence school) was founded in 1883. 1892: The term "distance education" was first used in America a University of Wisconsin–Madison catalog for the 1892 school year. 1906–7: The University of Wisconsin–Extension was founded, the first true distance learning institution in America. 1909: The Machine Stops a short story by E. M. Forster, which describes an audio/visual communication network being used to deliver a lecture on Australian music to a remote audience. 1920s: Sidney Pressey, an educational psychology professor at Ohio State University, develops the first "teaching machine." This device offered drill and practice exercises, and multiple choice questions. 1929: M.E. LaZerte, Director of the School of Education, University of Alberta, developed a set of instructional devices for teaching and learning. For example, he "developed several devices and methods to minimize instructor-as-testor involvement, so as to increase the likelihood of gathering data in a consistent manner." One mechanical device that he developed was the "problem cylinder" which could present a problem to a student and check whether the steps to a solution given by the student were correct.
1940s
1945
Vannevar Bush describes a hypertext-like device called the "memex" in his article As we may think in The Atlantic.
1948
Norbert Wiener writes about human-machine communications in his landmark book "Cybernetics or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine" (MIT Press, 1948).
1950s
1953
The University of Houston offers the first televised college credit classes via KUHT, the first public television station in the United States. The live telecasts ran from 13 to 15 hours each week, making up about 38% of the program schedule. Most courses aired at night so that students who worked during the day could watch them. By the mid-1960s, with about one-third of the station's programming devoted to education, more than 100,000 semester hours had been taught on KUHT.
1953–1956
B. F. Skinner develops "programmed instruction" [B.F. Skinner Foundation – Better Behavioral Science for a More Humane World] and an updated "teaching machine".