Editing Continuing education (section)

==History==
In the United Kingdom, [[Oxford University]]'s [[Oxford University Department for Continuing Education|Department for Continuing Education]] was founded in 1878,<ref>{{cite web|title=The history of continuing education at Oxford|url=https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/about/our-history|website=Department for Continuing Education|publisher=University of Oxford|access-date=28 December 2020|language=en}}</ref> and the [[Institute of Continuing Education]] of [[Cambridge University]] dates to the 1873.<ref>Jarvis, Peter. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=SMMgRnWmf3YC&pg=PA318 Adult Education and Lifelong Learning: Theory and Practice]'', p. 318 (Routledge 2004).</ref>

In the United States, the [[Chautauqua Institution]], originally the Chautauqua Lake Sunday School Assembly, was founded in 1874 "as an educational experiment in out-of-school, vacation learning. It was successful and broadened almost immediately beyond courses for Sunday school teachers to include academic subjects, music, art and physical education."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ciweb.org/about-us/about-chautauqua/our-history|title=Our History|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109035909/http://ciweb.org/about-us/about-chautauqua/our-history|archive-date=2013-11-09}}</ref>

[[Harvard University]] traces its origins in continuing education to 1835 when [[John Lowell Jr. (lawyer)|John Lowell Jr.]] established the [[Lowell Institute]] with a mission to provide free public lectures in Boston. In 1909, then-Harvard President [[A. Lawrence Lowell]], who was also a trustee of the Lowell Institute, expanded plans to offer Lowell Institute public courses directly with Harvard. In 1910, Lowell formally established the [[Harvard Extension School|Havard Extension School]], then referred to as the Commission on Extension Courses. The [[Harvard Extension School]] now operates under the [[Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences|Faculty of Arts and Sciences]] and is one of the 13 degree-granting schools that makes up [[Outline of Harvard University|Harvard University]]. The School has remained in continuous operation since 1910.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History|url=https://dce.harvard.edu/history|access-date=2023-06-27|website=Harvard Division of Continuing Education|language=en-us}}</ref> 

[[Cornell University]] was among higher education institutions that began offering university-based continuing education, primarily to teachers, through extension courses in the 1870s. As noted in the ''Cornell Era'' of February 16, 1877, the university offered a "Tour of the Great Lakes" program for "teachers and others" under the direction of Professor [[Theodore B. Comstock]], head of Cornell's department of geology.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/22175|title=Cornell Era V. 09 1876–1877|first=Cornell University|last=Press|date=March 31, 1877|via=ecommons.cornell.edu}}</ref>

The [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] began its continuing education program in 1907.<ref>{{cite web|last=Schugurensky|first=Daniel|title=1907: The 'Wisconsin Idea' Brings the University to the Community|work=History of Education: Selected Moments of the 20th Century|publisher=The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto|url=http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~daniel_schug/assignment1/1907wisconsin.html|access-date=2009-03-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=UW–Extension Chancellor's Office|title=Highlight History of Extension in Wisconsin 1862 to 1999|work=About Us|publisher=The University of Wisconsin–Extension|url=http://www.uwex.edu/about/history/|access-date=2009-03-01|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100529191957/http://www.uwex.edu/about/history/|archive-date=May 29, 2010}}</ref> [[The New School]] for Social Research, founded in 1919, was initially devoted to adult education.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dmc.newschool.edu:8180/luna/servlet/s/y821b4|title=Archived copy|access-date=2013-01-23|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130624184306/http://dmc.newschool.edu:8180/luna/servlet/s/y821b4|archive-date=2013-06-24}} New School Archives: Course Catalogs</ref> In 1969, [[Empire State College]], a unit of the [[State University of New York]], was the first institution in the US to exclusively focus on providing [[higher education]] to adult learners. In 1976 the [[University of Florida]] created its own [[University of Florida Division of Continuing Education|Division of Continuing Education]] and most courses were offered on evenings or weekends to accommodate the schedules of working students.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dce.ufl.edu/|title=Office of Distance Learning – University of Florida|website=dce.ufl.edu}}</ref>

The method of delivery of continuing education can include traditional types of classroom lectures and laboratories. However, many continuing education programs make heavy use of [[distance education]], which not only includes independent study, but can also include [[videotape]]d material, [[broadcasting|broadcast programming]] or [[online education]] which has more recently dominated the distance learning community.