CALCampus originates from the Computer Assisted Learning Center (CALC),
which was founded in 1982 in Rindge, New Hampshire, as a small, offline
computer-based, adult learning center. The center was based on the
same premise as today: to provide affordable, quality instruction to
individual learners through the use of computers.
In 1983, CALC's founder, Margaret Morabito, started investigating the
major commercial telecommunications networks and researched the various ways
that telecommunications was being used for education throughout the world,
resulting in a series of
articles that she wrote in RUN and Link-Up magazines throughout the 1980s.
Seeing the potential for combining computers, modems, and teaching, CALC
was designed as an exclusively online learning center for the purpose of
providing
instruction to individual learners from diverse locations through the use
of computer telecommunications.
In 1985, the QuantumLink telecommunications network opened for Commodore 64
computer users. A proposal was submitted by CALC and in early 1986,
CALC's first Tutoring Center went live on the QuantumLink network. That
was soon followed by CALC's design and development of what was then known
as QuantumLink Community College, which offered non-credit courses through
live online group instruction (today known as virtual classroom instruction).
From 1986 through 1995, CALC Online Campus, as it became known, expanded
its online school onto several major telecommunications networks, including
PC-Link, AppleLink,
AOL, Delphi, GEnie, and CompuServe. Various articles were written about
CALC's online schools during this period, documenting the development of
CALC and the
early development of online distance learning. The CALC teachers were
teachers who liked computers, who were already online, and who wanted to
try their hand at teaching online. It was a perfect match which resulted
in a successful online school serving thousands of students over the years,
students who never physically saw their teachers, yet who were in class
together every week for two to three hours of instruction.
By late 1994 and early 1995, Internet e-mail was becoming accessible to the
public through the major telecommunications networks. Quickly following
this was the availability of the entire Internet to the consumer through
smaller, local Internet providers, thus bypassing the limitations and
isolation of the large telecommunications networks. The emergence of the
Internet for
public access provided a major advancement for CALC: now, we were able to
reach everyone using one central location--the Internet. CALC
continued to operate its separate online campuses on the various networks;
however, it was clear that the Internet would provide the vehicle that CALC
required to fulfill its mission as an international online learning center.
In early 1995, CALC Online Campus moved onto the Internet as CALCampus.com.
CALCampus was the first to develop and implement the concept of a totally
online-based school through which administration, real-time classroom
instruction, and materials were provided, originating with the QuantumLink
campus. This was a significant departure from earlier methods of distance
education because no longer was the individual distance learner isolated from
the teacher and from classmates.
Today, CALCampus has expanded its methods of course delivery to include
directed individual study--directed by subject-specific teachers who
provide individualized instruction for their students. This method of
course delivery tends to
be more in demand from the students
since they are from so many different geographical locations. This, combined with the
option to meet live (online) with their instructors on CALCampus, provides
an effective and workable instructional method for an international student
body.
The world is connected via telecommunications and CALCampus is
literally a world school, with students participating from
across the Pacific and the Atlantic. As a CALCampus student, you
are in a unique position to learn from some of the best
instructors in online education today and to share your
educational goals with students from around the world.
Return to: CALCampus Home Page.
For other articles about CALC and distance education.
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