History of virtual learning environments

This page outlines the history of Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) development. (The term "Virtual Learning Environment" probably came into use in the early 1990s.)

2006

• Blackboard granted multinational patent over many features of VLEs as per its patent application of 2000. (US patent 6,988,138) It immediately files a suit against Desire2Learn for patent infringement.

2005

• Merger of WebCT into the Blackboard company. Both WebCT and Blackboard VLEs continue to exist as separate software. (See press release)

2004

• The Sakai Project founded, promising to develop an open source Collaboration and Learning Environment for the needs of higher education.

2002

• ATutor first public Open Source release in December ATutor Release News

• Moodle version 1.0 released in August

• Blackboard acquires MadDog Software and their Web Course in a Box product.

2001

• The Bodington system released as open source by the University of Leeds, U.K.

• Moodle is published via CVS to early testers The announcement is here.

• LON-CAPA is first used in courses at Michigan State University.

• version 2.0 of COSE is launched after further funding from the JISC

2000

• Courseware Accessibility Study User based study looks at the accessibility of six VLEs

• Blackboard Inc. application for patent is filed. Patent claim covers a number of features of VLEs, including network-based architecture, course and role based access via login, electronic assignment submission, online assessment, synchronous and asynchronous communications, and self-registration.

1999

• Martin Dougiamas trials early prototypes of Moodle at Curtin University of Technology, built during 1998 and 1999. This paper "Improving the effectiveness of tools for Internet based education" published in January 2000 details one case study and includes screenshots.

• The LON-CAPA project is started at Michigan State University.

• Desire2Learn is founded.

• The University of Michigan launches CourseTools, originally a product of the UMIE project (launched in 1996), and moved into its own development and production team due to the scale and scope of the LMS being launched and created.

• The Omnium Project based at The College of Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales runs its first global creative studio project online for 50 design students from 11 countries. [1]

• WebCT purchased by Universal Learning Technology. Roughly 1000 campuses using WebCT by end of year.

• "Courseware Accessibility Study" published, evaluating 7 online courseware systems for their accessibility.

• Stephen Downes publishes Web-Based Courses: The Assiniboine Model in the Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration.

• Wolfgang Appelt and Peter Mambrey publish a paper on using BSCW as a virtual learning environment.

1998

• In the spring of 1998 TeLeTOP, a set of fill-in forms on top of Lotus Domino, saw the light at Twente University, The Netherlands. It was not the first ELO that was used there, but it was the first one where teachers themselves could create a course without any ICT knowledge. Core of this product was and is the central task-scheme ("The Rostar"), where the teacher could create a row of activities for each week. (Typical activity set: before the session, during the session and after the session you must do...) A demo course has been available online since 1998. You still can login with UN: docent.test and PW: docent.test.

• The Cisco Networking Academy Management System (CNAMS) is released to faciliate communication and course management of the largest blended learning initiative of its time, the Cisco Networking Academy. It includes tools to maintain rosters, gradebooks, forums, as well as a scalable, robust assessment engine. Cisco Networking Academy Program.

• Humboldt State University's Courseware Development Center builds the Exammaker application for online testing. ExamMaker supports banks of questions, which may include audio and/or video segments, that may be true/false, fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, or essay. Essay questions are emailed to the teacher for grading, then sent back to Exammaker to display the graded essays to the students. ExamMaker grades all other types of questions and provides the student immediate feedback as soon as the exam is completed, including an explanation of the correct answers, and automatically posts the grade. Full Description:ASSURED STUDENT ACCESS TO COMPUTING AND THE NETWORK

• The Advanced Information Technology Lab at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis piloted Oncourse. (A description of the initial software was published in 1999 in The Journal.)

• Nicenet Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA2) is launched with web-based conferencing, personal messaging, document sharing, scheduling and link/resource sharing to a variety of learning environments. See their website

• DiscoverWare, Inc. builds and begins to deploy it's "Nova" course management system, involving a client/server architecture to deploy rich interactive content in a desktop application, and storing/sharing information on content, users, courses, and quizzes on a central server. This was an adaptive LMS, in that quizzes were generated based on the user's progress through the content, and courses were generated based on the user's responses to a quiz. The playback engine evolved a browser-based version that was SCORM Level 2 Compliant, enabling deployment of DiscoverWare content in third-party LMS such as Pathware.

• Blackboard Inc merges with CourseInfo a corporation created by Cornell University to acquire its core course management software.

• The Instructional Technology Group at Yale University http://www.yale.edu puts the "Classes" system into production for Fall semester. (A copy of the original site is captured in the Internet Archive for Spring of '99 (http://web.archive.org/web/19990128183756/http://classes.yale.edu/))

• WebTestr [2] built and deployed by Nicholas Crosby at SIAST [www.siast.sk.ca].

1997

• Lotus LearningSpace deployed as the learning and student team environment for the Indiana University Accounting MBA program and reported in the proceedings of HICSS-32.

• The Bodington VLE deployed at the University of Leeds, U.K.

• Ziff Davis launches ZDNet University for $4.95/month. Offering courses in programming, graphics and web management. See the Archive at Archive

• Cisco Systems In 1993, Cisco embarked on an initiative to design practical, cost-effective networks for schools. It quickly became apparent that designing and installing the networks was not enough, schools also needed some way to maintain the networks after they were up and running. Cisco Senior Consulting Engineer George Ward developed training for teachers and staff for maintenance of school networks. The students in particular were eager to learn and the demand was such that in 1997 it led to the creation of the Cisco Networking Academy Program, see Cisco networking academy. The Cisco Networking Academy Program, established in 1997, teaches students networking and other information technology-related skills, preparing them for jobs as well as for higher education in engineering, computer science and related fields. Since its launch, the program has grown to more than 10,000 Academies in 50 U.S. states and more than 150 countries with a curriculum taught in nine different languages. More than 400,000 students participate in Academies operating in high schools, colleges and universities, technical schools, community-based organizations, and other educational programs around the world. The Networking Academy program blends face-to-face teaching with web-based curriculum, hands-on lab exercises, and Internet-based assessment. Click here to learn more from Cisco Systems on how this program began, and click here for a pdf document to learn more about the program today Program History PDF.

• Foundation of Blackboard Inc as consulting firm.

• WebAssign developed by faculty at North Carolina State University for the online submission of student assignments and a mechanism for immediate assessment and feedback.

• WebCT spins out of UBC forming independant company with several hundred university customers.

• Release of TWEN (The West Education Network), a system which "connects you with the most useful and current legal information and news, while helping you to organize your course information and participate in class discussions". (See archived homepage from archive.org)

• Future Learning Environment (FLE) reserarch and development project starts in Helsinki, Finland (See http://fle3.uiah.fi)

• Stephen Downes presents Web-Based Courses: The Assiniboine Model http://www.westga.edu/~distance/downes22.html at NAWeb 1997, describing the LMS in detail.

• A collaborative writing project between Jr Hi students and University pre-teachers, using Filemaker Pro to create collaborative writing spaces, Jan-Mar, 1997, later described in Payne, J Scott and N. S. Peterson. 2000. The Civil War project: project-based collaborative learning in a virtual space. Educational Technology & Society 3(3).

1996

• The UCLA Periodontics Information Center was established in 1996 within the UCLA School of Dentisty with generous gifts from the Tarrson Family and Sun Microsystems. The initial thrust was to provide the most comprehensive website on Periodontics including Tutorials, Case Studies and Contining Education Credits.

• Webtester and ChiTester developed at Weber State University through a grant from the Utah Higher Education Technology Initiative. ChiTester early history

• MadDuck Software develops Web Course in a Box. (See this 1997 presentation)

• 8 May, 1996 - Paris, France: Murray Golberg presents paper at the 5th WWW conference, introducing WebCT - See session PS10, paper P29 - http://www.w3.org/Conferences/WWW5/fich_html/paper-sessions.html. For paper, see: http://www.ra.ethz.ch/CDstore/www5/www156/overview.htm

• Daniel Cane, a sophomore at Cornell University develops the ideas for CourseInfo as part of an independent study project working with Cindy van Es, a senior lecturer in Agricultural, Resource and Managerial Economics (ARME). Early CourseInfo newspaper article.

• Electronic, network-based assignment submission tool in use at Australian National University Department of Computer Science. Web-based course pages also implemented at ANU DCS (both submission tool and course pages may have been in use prior to 1996).

• The University of Michigan launches the UMIE project (the University of Michigan Instructional Environment), a combination of systems to enhance learning online and to create a Learning Management System for use by the campus.

• University of Southern Queensland (USQ) offers its first fully online program, a Graduate Certificate in Open and Distance Learning, using a system that linked together course materials presented in web pages, online discussion via newsgroups (NNTP) and a purpose-built system for online submission of student work.

• The development of COSE was funded from September 1996 to August 1999 by the JISC Technology Applications Programme (JTAP). COSE has continued to gain support from the JISC in its work on interoperability.

• Pitsco, Inc. (See [3]) ships an updated version of its Synergistic Systems modular education curriculum which includes computer-based assessment and network-based reporting and gathering of assessment results.

• World Wide Satellite Broadcasting (WSB) Inc. develops a satellite-based distance learning system using synchronized video and audio courseware provided by UCLA. Content is delivered via Philips' CleverCast content distribution system to Windows PCs running Active Desktop via the Astro MEASAT Direct To Home (DTH) network, covering Malaysia, Thailand and India.

1995

• Lotus Notes used for course materials, syllabi, handouts, homework collection, teams, and multi-instructor, multi-team teaching in the MBA program. Results reported at several academic conferences (ICIS-17, AIS-2) in 1996.

• Mallard web-based course management system developed at the University of Illinois (Mallard overview). See also CyberProf (also copyrighted in 1995 from University of Illinois)

• WOLF (Wolverhampton Online Learning Framework)[4] developed at Wolverhampton University's DELTA institute under the guidance of Stephen Molyneux. [5] This went on to be released commercially by Granada Learning as Learnwise [6]

• Nicenet ICA launched to the public

• Murray Goldberg begins development of WebCT at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada

• FirstClass is named the Best General Purpose Tool/School Program by Technology & Learning magazine, 1995-1996 see [awards. http://www.softarc.com/awards/]

• WeBWorK Online Homework Delivery System is developed by Michael Gage and Arnold Pizer at the University of Rochester.

• Virtual Science and Mathematics Fair used static HTML pages created by children and a threaded discussion for comment posts left by judges and visitors. PhD research reported by Kevin C Facemyer, 1996.

• The Project for OnLine Instructional Support POLIS is made generally available to faculty at the University of Arizona for managing courses online.

1994

• CALCampus launches online-based school through which administration, real-time classroom instruction, and materials are provided. Origins of CALCampus

• The Tarrson Family Endowed Chair in Periodontics at UCLA is establish with a testamentary gift to design, develop and launch the UCLA Periodontics Information Center for sharing periodontal practices and concepts with the worldwide dental community via CD-ROM and the Internet.

• Lotus Development Corporation acquires the Human Interest Group. The system evolves into the Lotus Learning Management System and Lotus Virtual Classroom, now owned by IBM.

• SUNY Learning Network begins in 1994. Traditional faculty were hired to create online courses for asynchronous delivery into the home via computer. Each faculty member worked with an instructional design partner to implement the course. From the fall of 1995 through spring of 1997, forty courses were developed and delivered. SLN now supports over 3,000 faculty, 100,000 enrollments on 40 of the State Univeresity of New York's campuses.

• WEST 1.0 is released by WBT Systems. It eventually is renamed TopClass.

• The Project for OnLine Instructional Support POLIS is designed and developed at the University of Arizona. This tool provides innovative dialog-based lessons to students. To support use of these lessons a method for providing online course context, course organization and course communications tools is created.

1992

• CAPA (Computer Assisted Personalized Approach) system was developed at Michigan State University. It was first used in a small (92 student) physics class in the Fall of 1992. [7]

1982

• The Computer Assisted Learning Center (CALC) founded as a small, offline computer-based, adult learning center. Origins of CALCampus

• Edutech Project of Encinitas California (now Digital ChoreoGraphics of Newport Beach,CA) implements PIES, an interactive online educational development and delivery system using a client-server paradigm for online delivery of personalized courseware to students via popular video-game consoles and micro-computers. The system was used by Pepperdine University, Georgia Tech, San Diego County Department of Education, and Alaska Department of Education for distance learning.

1981

• School of Management and Strategic Studies at the Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla, California starts an online program. Feenberg

• University of Sussex, UK, implements Poplog, an interactive learning environment for AI and computing students. It includes hyperlinked teaching materials, an extensible text editor, multiple programming languages and interactive demonstrations of AI programs. [8]

1976

• Edutech Project of Encinitas California (now Digital ChoreoGraphics of Newport Beach,CA) develops DOTTIE, a TV Set-Top device linking the home TV to online services such as CompuServ and The Source via a common household telephone.

• Development of the language Pop11 (derived from the Ediburgh AI language Pop2) and its teaching tools started in 1976 in Sussex University. This later evolved into Poplog. More information is available here: [9]

1969

• The US Department of Defense commissions ARPANET (and thus the Internet as we know it). Hobbes' Timeline

1960

• PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations) system developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The system remains in operation until the mid-1990s.

See also

• Online Learning History from moodle.org
• Course Management System comparison from EduTools.info