The first known instance of modern distance learning was when Englishman Isaac Pitman offered shorthand courses by post in the 19th century. His courses required students to translate Bible passages into shorthand, and submit their work via the "penny post" system. Pitman's course is regarded as the first modern distance learning course because it reached a nationwide, not just a local, audience.
Despite some universities attempting to introduce correspondence education, the field was dominated by private companies for some time. Correspondence education was especially popular amongst women, who were not expected to go to university. In Boston, a woman named Anna Ticknow provided correspondence courses to 10,000 women.
The increased popularity of correspondence education led to the creation of the National Home Study Council in the early 20th century in order to maintain standards across multiple correspondence education providers.
The advent of radio in the early 20th century allowed correspondence education to reach a new level. Universities would sponsor educational radio broadcasts, allowing correspondence students to listen to lectures. The development of television in the 1940s helped to increase correspondence education further. The technological advances of the time gave correspondence education more equal footing with brick and mortar universities.
A majority of large universities today offer distance learning courses. Advances, such as teleconferencing with tutors, instant messaging between lecturers and students and emailing coursework have made this possible. The development of remote access services, where students access a central database of files and text via a computer, assists students in their studies from home. As a result, several schools exclusively providing distance learning have been opened. For example, the Open University in the UK, which has been running for over 40 years, is devoted to distance learning.
Several myths that abound about correspondence universities include ideas that the issued degrees are worth less than those from traditional universities, or that the quality of education is poor; however, with advances in distance learning, this is simply not true. The Open University, for example, was ranked ninth out of all universities in the UK in 2002, and ranked second in student satisfaction surveys in 2007.
The ease of access people have to the Internet means that some "universities" that advertise correspondence courses in advanced subjects are scams. Many of these are known as "diploma mills" where students receive fake degrees after handing over a check. These scams can be obvious, but others are more complex. Watchdog group, Scambusters, offers a check list that should be used when deciding whether or not a distance learning school is bogus. Those who want to know for certain should check with the Council for Higher Learning Accreditation.