A brief history of distance education in Chemistry at McGill University in Canada

Abstract

Distance education began as correspondence courses in the 1700s, chiefly to connect rural communities with secondary and post-secondary educational institutions located in major cities. Since then, owing to the overwhelming improvements in communication technologies over the past two centuries, distance education is now well-established and is a major educational approach employed throughout the world. This paper will include a brief overview of the history of distance education in general and a description of some of the author's personal experiences with respect to distance teaching of university-level Chemistry courses since he began his academic career as a professor over 50 years ago.