About the Distance Education Clearinghouse

In the early days of the Internet, when only a few people had access to it and there were few resources available online, the Distance Education Clearinghouse pioneered the field of online education. The materials provided were to help teachers, librarians and students, and in most cases were free of charge.

Resources Provided by the Distance Education Clearinghouse

The DEC website provided access to journals and research papers that people not in school or who were not involved in academics were able to view without going to a library. It was comprehensive, covering a broad range of subjects and also widely recognized as a valuable resource.

Origins of the Distance Education Clearinghouse

The website was developed by Instructional Communications Systems and launched at the University of Wisconsin in 1995. This began operation on the Gopher Network (pre-Internet), though Gopher Network operated on many of the same principles. In 2006 the website was updated and had new resources added to it.

Value of the Distance Education Clearinghouse

In the year 2000 the American Society for Training and Development recognized the Distance Education Clearinghouse by making it one of its top 20 most useful workplace-related websites. The website was also listed as a resource by the Institute for Scientific Information. ISI publications are prestigious and internationally recognized in the science community.

In addition to the academic recognition, it provided information on various subjects for people who could not pay for school or who simply did not have the time to attend college. The Distance Education Clearinghouse provided these individuals with the tools to learn via the Internet.

The Current Distance Education Clearinghouse 

The website closed in 2010 due to the inability to maintain the website, staffing issues and a desire to redirect focus.