Module 3 Assignment: Rhymes of History

Learning Management Systems

“Rhymes of history”, one of the forces that drive emerging technology, impact the development of a new technology or rekindle something from the past (Thornburg, 2014). Learning Management Systems, which provide the course materials and tests to students at any location, can be an example of technology that represents a rhyme of history. The first attempt of distance education occurred in 1728, when a British teacher mailed weekly lessons to their students. In 1840, Sir Isaac Pitman sent texts to his students and received their responses by mail. This innovation was the foundation for the development of correspondence courses in the UK (Hickey, 2014).

In 1924, Sidney Pressey invented the first teaching machine that could administer multiple choice questions. In 1929, LaZere invented a device that could provide a problem to a student and check whether the problem was solved correctly. SAKI, a teaching system that adjusted the difficulty of the questions based on the student’s performance, was invented in 1956. In 1960, The University of Illinois linked the computer terminals so that students could access the course materials and listen to the recorded lectures. This innovation evolved into the PLATO system, which allowed for the operation of thousands terminal across the planet. PLATO also had chart rooms, screen sharing, and message boards (Hickey, 2014).

In 1969, the U.S. Department of Defence developed APPANET, the precursor to the Internet. The first desck-top computer, introduced in 1970, and the World Wide Web, invented in 1989, made modern online learning possible. In 1990, the first LMS for the Macintosh platform was launched. The historical ideas described above were reflected in the further development of LMSs. Currently, most LMSs are hosted in the cloud and their further development is on the rise (Hickey, 2014).

References

Hickey, R. (2014). The History of Online Education. Retrieved from https://www.petersons.com/college-search/online-education-history.aspx

Laureate Education (Producer). (2014h). David Thornburg: Rhymes of history [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.

 LMS. (n.d.). History of the LMS. Retrieved from https://www.mindflash.com/learning-management-systems/history-of-lms