The corporate sector has embraced e-learning with the coming of the new century (in the 2000s) as one of the best ways to train new employees. It is a highly productive method to share company values and convey the same message to all your employees globally, while maintaining the same high standards.

The initial attitude towards e-learning was not very positive as people were afraid that it will replace the teacher and lacked the human element that is necessary for efficient learning. Some of the voices against this system said that it lacks the intuitive approach and that a machine cannot show empathy or diversify the approach towards different types of learners. The rapid technological progress and the advanced learning systems, however, helped the masses to embrace e-learning.

It is interesting to mention that the term e-learning was first used in October 1999 at a CBT Systems Seminar in Los Angeles. The idea of this type of education, however, has much earlier roots.

The first steps of machine-assisted learning were made by Sidney Pressey who invented the teaching machine back in the 1920s. It looked like a typewriter and was used to answer multiple-choice questions. This idea was further developed by B.F. Skinner a few decades later. He constructed another teaching machine in 1954 that allowed learners to view an open-ended question via special window and write down the answer on a roll of paper. The machine allowed the student to proceed further only when a correct answer was given. Both inventions were not very popular at the time. They were perceived as a threat to the teaching profession. Nevertheless, the ideas developed by these two professors, are now incorporated in some modern assessment management systems.

The first actual distance learning took place in the 1840s. Isaac Pitman used written correspondence to teach shorthand (stenography) in Great Britain. He sent the assignments to his students via mail and they returned them for assessment. The element of student feedback was a crucial innovation of Pitman’s system and is now widely used in e-learning modules.

The first actual online classes were offered back in 1976 by the Open University. They even used a special system that allowed teleconferencing before the era of Skype. The Coastline Community College was also established the same year and it became the first school to offer a fully online degree. With the popularization of the computer and the broader access users had to it, electronic learning started emerging in many educational institutions in the USA and across Europe. Distance education has evolved quickly to the extent that nowadays we cannot imagine our education without some web-based learning.

This, in a nutshell, is the history of e-learning and how it become a popular tool for accessing new knowledge.

Who can Benefit from E-Learning?

The answer to this question is actually, quite simple – everyone. E-learning modules can be developed to be accessible on different mobile devices and can incorporate different learning systems to match the specific needs of the learner. Basically, we can divide e-learning users into four main groups: