Originally founded as Home Education Network to distribute and market videotapes of UCLA Extension's lectures, OLN began offering online classes in 1997, under a licensing and royalty arrangement with the school. Each of the courses OLN offers is also offered by UCLA Extension, and the syllabi are identical. Such distance-learning partnerships are becoming increasingly common. Here, too, the attractions are obvious. New technologies have greatly accelerated the pace of workplace change, fueling the millennial boom in continuing and professional education.
Educators are a naturally conservative bunch.
But, for the most part, earlier debates about distance learning are beginning to subside. But vocal critics remain. Some teachers worry that software and computer companies have managed to fool schools into making massive investments in distance learning and other technologies without any real pedagogical justification. But this is a long way from saying that the teachers are unqualified or the courses are shoddy, as many critics of distance learning seem to imply. Though they lack some of the benefits and job security of tenured faculty, adjuncts and part-timers at UCLA Extension and OLN have either academic or significant professional credentials.