National Online Learning Day on September 15 celebrates the huge array of learning resources that are available to students online. The internet has revolutionized the learning process and students are thriving in the flexible environment that it offers them. This is a day for raising awareness of all of the resources and courses that are available online and to get people, young or old, investing time in their own education. The internet has a seemingly infinite pool of learning resources so it’s a good time to dwell on what you’d like to learn and take a look to see what courses are available to you.
History of National Online Learning Day
The internet began to swell in popularity in the 1990s and with it we started to see the development of online learning. The first online high school, CompuHigh, was established in 1994. CompuHigh offered year-round enrollment with self-paced studies and was mainly focussed on U.S. students and accreditations.
As the quality of internet connection improved, so did the online learning tools that were available with webcams and multimedia resources being utilized more often. Between 2002 and 2005, the number of K-12 students enrolled in online distance learning of some sort increased by 65%. The birth of the virtual classroom provided qualified teachers with the opportunity to communicate with and give instructions or feedback to students in an interactive environment. Virtual classrooms have become increasingly sophisticated and are now able to provide learning environments that replicate those of the traditional physical classroom.
The increased flexibility and ease of communication has meant that online learning courses have increased in popularity year on year throughout the 21st century. By 2015 there were an estimated 6 million students participating in at least one online learning course. National Online Learning Day was established in 2016 and has been observed on September 15 every year since.