Foreign languages have quite a long history in distance education.
As early as the 1930s Midwestern universities were putting on language courses for those living in remote farming areas. Students followed these radio-based programs and mailed in their exercises and quizzes to the station. In Europe, foreign language distance education has been on offer since the 1960s, through programs such as those of the BBC or the British Open University. Indeed it is now possible to obtain a Bachelors degree with a foreign language major on the Open University. There are several reasons for an academic institution to offer language courses via distance education.