What is University Without Walls

This chapter suggests that the rise, establishment, and success of for-profit online educational institutions is rooted in prior technologies and concepts supporting the education of adults. The chapter shows how correspondence schools and later the University Without Walls and other adult degree programs provided the institutional models for reaching out to those adults who were unable to access traditional academic programs because of academic, economic, institutional, and social barriers. Three concepts are discussed as providing the conceptual groundings for the for-profit online university: the open university and independent study, correspondence and home study, and adult-focused degree accommodations. The convergence of these ideas and the availability of advanced technological tools which could reach learners worldwide provided the opportunity for the for-profit online educational institution to supplant other adult degree programs and to become a disruptive force in the educational marketplace.