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While the Athena Project was occurring at MIT, the University of Illinois had a similar project called PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations). It ran on the University’s ILLIAC I vacuum tube computer. The central goal was to advance computer system instruction.
The creator of PLATO was Donald Bitzer in 1960. He created the PLATO system as a demonstration unit for the university staff. There was an overwhelming sense of educational failure in the United States since the USSR sent the first satellite into space. Thus the need for an improved computer science education was on the horizon. PLATO went through numerous upgrades, and was funded in part by the military over time. This computer system was used for 40 years solidly. It was the automated means to teach college students.
However, an interesting facet to PLATO was the online community developed by students and professors. By the late 1970’s, email, chat rooms and instant messaging were standard tools.
It was also the inspiration for developing the popular games Doom, Flight Simulator and World of Warcraft.
The success of this system on the campus led to a commercial line being developed as CDC, Control Data Corporation. This company’s sole purpose was to develop and sell PLATO Systems to universities that could not afford computerized coursework. Eventually, the system was being billed as a universal computer tool from agricultural crop information systems to retraining unemployed workers. It implemented the first online professional testing environment within the finance and banking industry. However, the system eventually lost out to the microcomputer revolution in the 1980s’. The price, user training, and terminal costs drove the company out of business.