[2] Penn State started offering distance education courses in 1892, when it launched one of the nation's first correspondence study programs to farmers around Pennsylvania.

More than one hundred years later, in 1998, the University reaffirmed its commitment to providing accessible learning to all who need it with the launching of Penn State World Campus.

One of several roots underpinning the policy decision to establish World Campus was a decade of experimentation at The American Centre for Study of Distance Education in the College of Education, in which Professor Michael G. Moore developed and taught some of the world's first online courses, including cadres of students in several cities in Mexico and Europe as well as the USA.

Penn State Vice-President Jim Ryan became persuaded of the quality of the pedagogy being developed in these courses and in 1992 he commissioned the setting up of a University-wide Task Force to study the potential of a major initiative, the conclusion being that "The Task Force firmly believes that there is a very real possibility that national and international preeminence in distance education may prove to be a prerequisite to national and international preeminence in most other areas of academic enterprise."

Penn State World Campus offers online programs awarding graduate and undergraduate degrees and certificates.