Over the past 150 years, as media has undergone transformations, DE has evolved through five generations (Taylor, 2001, 2007). All generations of DE still exist and are used today (Garrison & Anderson, 2003); however, online education is the most widely employed form of DE today (Lee & Nguyen, 2007). The five generations of DE they are foundational to understanding not only the evolvement of the definition of DE but the evolvement of the understanding of what constitutes effective, quality DE, especially quality and effective e-learning. In the learning unit, listen to a presentation to learn about the 5 generations of DE and the learning theories upon which they were based.

Researchers have said that, with each generation, education has become more flexible, interactive, and accessible (Hmm.. is this true? Something to think about.). Consequently, shifts in learning theory and pedagogy occurred, and the understanding of effective, quality education evolved. Before we end this unit, let’s briefly review the major theories that are native to distance education and often used to evaluate the effectiveness of a distance education lesson, course, or program.