By Chana German Jewish Educational Leadership, Volume 12:2 Spring 2014
Although there has recently been considerable focus on online learning, it should be noted that it has actually been around for over twenty years. By the early 1990s, educational pioneers were experimenting with first generation Learning Management Systems (an LMS is a platform which allows for the administration, and delivery of online courses), asynchronous discussion boards, collaborative tools, and even electronically-generated individualized learning plans for K-12 students. Schools in Canada, Australia, and remote areas in the United States began experimenting with using the Internet to deliver classes to students who were unable to attend traditional schools. These students had previously been home schooled, or taught via correspondence courses, radio transmissions, or live video feed, and harnessing the Internet was the next natural step (Moore, 2005). Read more here.