Was there ever an evolution of Distance Education? With a history beginning in 1728 (Simonson, 2000) there is bound to have been at least one evolution of Distance Education. With that being the case, I would instead like to consider the “revolution” of distance education. I recommend that distance education *revolve* around learner preference. I advocate for the learner’s ability to complete a course based on the offering type. For example, students can currently pick the classroom, online, synchronous/asynchronous offering of the same class, why not expand the options to include video remote classrooms, print courses, one-on-one instructional courses, etc. There is so much technology that surrounds us why not offer “made to order” courses? There are many researchers that advocate an evolution in “Distance Education”.
Huett et al. (2008) recommend that instructional designers get busy and develop learning that is flexible and adapts with the fluid landscape that is technology. Simonson (2000) recommends that we take my revolution a step further and have the learners themselves identify the learning objectives for the course. Imagine that, the learner logs on the schools registration site and instead of registering for courses they register for the learning outcomes they wish to achieve. What a novel idea!
References
Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Coleman, C. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the Web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(4), 66-70.
Simonson, M. (2000). Making decisions: The use of electronic technology in online classrooms. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 84, 29-34.
Mia's Blog 
Mia, I like your “Revolution” instead of evolution ideas. For someone raised without all the tech gadgets we have today, it is indeed a revolution. We’ve come a very long way from the mail-order college courses my mom took in the 70’s, to the web-centered distance education we enjoy today. As my ancestors in France once said, “Vive la Révolution!”