In the 1980s, online education was the purview of academically based initiatives. These were largely peripheral to mainstream universities, freeing them from the managerial agendas and practical constraints that often guide innovation in large institutions. They were exploratory, involving the creation of an original pedagogical model and the development of technical systems to support it. They were innovative in their realization that a fusion of computing and telecommunication allowed online education to transcend computer-assisted instruction (CAI). They defied common wisdom by appropriating technology through traditional instructional values instead of imagining it as a means of revolutionary transformation. And as they wrestled with the technology, they networked with one another to define online education collaboratively. By the decade's end, a consensus had emerged on what online education would be--an innovative mode of dialogic interpersonal interaction managed via many-to-many communication systems. [For the complete volume, "Technology and the Politics of University Reform: The Social Shaping of Online Education. Digital Education and Learning," see ED613097.]