TESU Offered Online Courses in 1987

[cookderosa]

The claim was made that they have "offered" online courses since 1987. I am fully aware that they have had online courses since then, but they were not offered to the general student population.

The best way to put it:

"Most people taking an online course in 1987 would be like giving a caveman a fkn lighter." (and by most, I mean just about everyone).

I have to agree. In late 1990s, I sat on a committee with Eastern Iowa Community College District - the largest CC district in Iowa, as we discussed a HUGE grant that we got and were going to share with the second largest CC district in Iowa - DesMoines CC. With the grant, the colleges were going to LINK TOGETHER using Fiber Optics and tv monitors to display a teacher from 1 campus across all the connected campuses in real time. This was groundbreaking technology. This tech would be available to our district at only 1 of our campuses, and in only 1 of our rooms- we went about the task of debating and discussing which department would get to offer a class this way. These course offerings were listed in an independent catalog offered by the *new* Iowa Community College Consortium. It was badass. Number of students to jumped at this new technology? Not many. Most were worried that it wouldn't transfer. That was the start of our own personal "online learning" that was more accurately distance learning.
This is a 2-prong problem. (1) is the technology - which TESC (not TESU) claims to have had available, which is great. (2) Early Adopters / Lighthouse technology. This market segment is already small, now filter by those who would have interest in taking a college course, those who would pay for it, and those who would have known about it.
My money says those 15 students friends and family and paid nada.