One view is that distance education originated in England in19th century: 1840, a missionary named Issac Peterman sent shorthand lessons to his students through the post office, which was the earliest origin of distance education.

1849 the university of London pioneered the off-campus degree system, allowing students from any institution of higher learning in Britain and Commonwealth countries to apply for the degree courses of the university of London, and providing correspondence teaching for registered applicants. Therefore, the academic circles take 1849 as the birth age of world distance higher education.

Another view is that the origin of distance education can be traced back to ancient primitive society. In the primitive educational activities of human beings, the appearance of "meta-media" is the origin of distance education. This unique view was put forward by domestic scholars in 1999. Although it has not been widely recognized, it has aroused great interest in academic circles.

The development of distance education in China has experienced three generations:

The first generation is correspondence education, which has trained many talents for the country, but correspondence education has great limitations;

The second generation is radio and television education, which rose in the 1980s. China's distance education model and CCTV are world-renowned.

In 1990s, with the development of information and network technology, the third generation of modern distance education based on information and network technology came into being.

Extended data:

Distance education, also known as online education in some documents issued by the Ministry of Education, is a kind of adult education qualifications. It refers to the teaching mode using TV, Internet and other media, which breaks through the boundaries of time and space and is different from the traditional teaching mode of staying in school.

Students who use this teaching mode are usually amateurs. Because you don't need to go to a specific place to attend classes, you can attend classes anytime and anywhere. Students can also learn from each other through various channels, such as TV broadcast, internet, special counseling hotline, class research club and face-to-face teaching (correspondence). It is a new concept after modern information technology is applied to education, that is, education by using network technology and environment. Enrollment targets are not limited by age and previous academic qualifications, which provides opportunities for people who have entered the society to improve their academic qualifications.

Baidu encyclopedia-distance education