User:Tehall2014/Draft article on Borje Holmberg

Börje Holmberg (PhD) Professor Emeritus of Distance-Education Methodology at FernUniversitat, Germany was born 1924 in Malmo, Sweden. Holmberg spent many years in distance education research and is an author of distance education. He has published books, articles, contributed to several learned journals and designed and developed distance education courses. Holmberg speaks and writes in Swedish, German and English.

Holmberg advocated for a theory of distance education. Emerging from his early statement ' a correspondence course must by definition be different from a textbook with questions. A correspondence course provides actual teaching by itself and is thus a substitute for both a textbook and the exposition of a teacher', came the concept of guided didactic conversation. This was Holmberg's significant contribution to the theory of distance education. His theory of guided didactic conversation has contributed to making distance-learning materials now a recognizably different genre from textbooks.

Personal life
Borje Holmberg was born in 1924 in Malmo, Sweden. He is fluent and has written publications in English, German and Swedish. Holmberg lived the major part of his life in Sweden before accepting a position in Germany in 1976.

Education and academic career
In 1946, Holmberg graduated from the University of Lund with his M.A. in English, German, Romance Languages and Education. He received his research degree in 1953 having completed studies in English linguistics inclusive of Primitive Germanic at the doctoral level. His research produced a publication on early eighteenth-century pronunciation, which earned him his doctorate in 1956. During this period, Holmberg held jobs in the education sector as a schoolmaster,a university administrator and lecturer.

In 1953, Borje Holmberg stepped into the world of distance education as an author of an English language course for Hermods in Sweden. At the time, Hermods was Europe's largest distance-teaching school having between 75,000 to 100,000 students enrolled in each year. Three years later, he was made educational director of Hermods, and in 1966 appointed director general of Hermods Foundation. The latter he held till his resignation in 1975.

Soon after, in 1976, Holmberg accepted an invitation to a chair in distance-education methodology and became director of the Institute for Distance-Education Research (ZIFF) at the Fern Universitat in Germany. His focus on research during the following years till his retirement in 1990 spent at Fern Universitat, resulted in the publication of several books and many contributions to learned journals. While at Hermods Holmberg had published studies in distance education, monographs and several articles.

Since his retirement, Borje Holmberg has continued to contribute to research and debate on distance education. He became the founding rector in 1995 of a private distance-teaching university in Germany, FernFachhochschule Darmstadt. He also took part in the development and teaching of an online Master of Distance Education program offered since 2000 in partnership by the University of Maryland University College and Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg.

Awards and affiliations
Honorary doctorates have been awarded to Borje Holmberg by Deaken University in Australia and the Open University in the United Kingdom. He is the recipient of the Prize of Excellence of the UNESCO-affiliated International Council for Open and Distance Education. Borje Holmberg is a Knight of the Royal Order of Vasa, Sweden, as well as of the Order of the White Rose of Finland. He is on the roll of Honour of the European Association of Distance Learning and is a member of Kungliga Fysiografiska Sallskapet i Lund, an academy of sciences founded in 1792 and of the Advisory Board UKD Academy.

Research
Holmberg's contribution to distance education theory is in the area of interaction and communication. His interest in two-way communication lead to his most significant theory contribution, that of the guided didactic conversation. He prescribed the characteristics that the learning materials should adapt to in order to facilitate this type of conversation. As distance education continued to evolve, Holmberg emphasised the need for a theory of distance education and developed one.

Two-way communication
In 1960 Holmberg had an idea that if communication within a distance education course could take the form of a friendly conversation, then students will be motivated and more successful than when communication takes place with an impersonal textbook. Holmberg came to a natural conclusion that if this empathetic approach was incorporated in distance education that this would facilitate increased motivation and success. Research and twenty years later this idea lead to the development of Holmberg's theory of guided didactic conversation also known as the theory of teaching-learning conversations.

Guided didactic conversation
In his 1981 publication Status and Trends of Distance Education, Holmberg likens the guided didactic conversation to a type of two-way conversational traffic through the written and telephone interaction between the students and the teaching institution. The form of the learning materials propels the conversation between the students and the institution and between the students themselves; to become real and simulated. Real by correspondence, telephone and personal contact; simulated by internalized conversation guided by the learning materials. Holmberg elaborated further and states that good distance education is like a guided conversation that facilitates learning.

The development of the learning materials is integral to the successful application of guided didactic conversations. Holmberg's publication in 1983 Guided Didactic Conversation, prescribes the following characteristics for the development of distance learning materials to effectively facilitate guided didactic conversations and ultimately, learning.
 * Easily accessible presentations of study matter: clear, somewhat colloquial language, in writing that is easily readable; moderate density of information.
 * Explicit advice and suggestions to the student as to what to do; and what to avoid, what to pay particular attention to and consider, with reasons provided.
 * Invitations to an exchange of views, to questions, to judgements of what is to be accepted and what is to be rejected.
 * Attempts to involve the student emotionally so that he or she takes a personal interest in the subject and its problems.
 * Personal style including the use of the personal and possessive pronouns.
 * Demarcation of changes of themes through explicit statements, typographical means or, in recorded, spoken communication, through a change of speakers, or through pauses.

Holmberg encourages frequent interaction between students and tutors for assignments and feedback. These assignments are to be facilitators of this two-way communication rather than as a means to examine and evaluate students. Two publications in 1989 by Holmberg dealt with these concerns: Mediated Communication as a Component of Distance Education and Tutoring Frequency in Distance Education - an empirical study of the impact of various frequencies.

Theory of distance education
Holmberg saw the need for a theory of distance education. The Feasibility of a Theory of Teaching for Distance Education and a Proposed Theory published by Holmberg in 1985 justifies this need. The proposed prescriptive theory incorporated the concept of empathy as the guiding principle for distance education. This lead to the development of the theory and the publication of Holmberg's Theory and Practice of Distance Education in 1995. This book along with Holmberg's works in general, were amongst the most cited sources of four prominent distance learning journals, according to the ''American Journal of Distance Education (18(4),pp. 225-241).

General
Holmberg's research in the field of distance education as evidenced by his publications over a 50 year period has covered the history and evolution, the growth and structure, and the various contributed theories of distance education. Holmberg's 2005 book The Evolution, Principles and Practices of Distance Education reflects a more sophisticated distance education with modern information and communication technology.

Publications
Holmberg's great merit is his knowledge about the roots, the principles, the practices and the evolution of distance education. Provided is a list of some of his publications.


 * Holmberg, B. (1960). On the methods of teaching by correspondence.Lunds universitets arsskrift. N.F.Avd.1,Bd.54,Nr.2. Lund:Gleerup.
 * Holmberg, B. (1973). Supervised correspondence study - a Swedish case study based on experiences within the school system.Epistolodidaktika 2,29-34.
 * Holmberg, B. (1977). Distance education: a survey and bibliography. London: Kogan Page.
 * Holmberg, B. (1981). Status and Trends of Distance Education. London: Kogan Page; New York: Nichols.
 * Holmberg, B. (1982). Essentials of distance education (a distance-study course based on a handbook and a reader). Hagen: FernUniversitat, ZIFF.
 * Holmberg, B. (1983). Guided didactic conversation. In D.Stewart, D.Keegan,& B.Holmberg (Eds.), Distance education: International perspective. London: Croom Helm.
 * Holmberg, B. (1985). The feasibility of a theory of teaching for distance education and a proposed theory. ZIFF Papiere, 60.Hagen:FernUniversitat, ZIFF.
 * Holmberg, B. (1987). Growth and structure of distance education. London: Croom Helm.
 * Holmberg, B., & Schuemer, R. (1989). Tutoring frequency in distance education - an empirical study of the impact of various frequencies of assignment submission. Hagen: FernUniversitat, ZIFF.
 * Holmberg, B. (1989). Mediated Communication as a Component of Distance Education. Hagen: FernUniversitat.
 * Holmberg, B. (1990). A bibliography of writings on distance education. Hagen: FernUniversitat, ZIFF.
 * Holmberg, B. (1990). Serving academic purposes by an empathy approach to distance education. In D. Eastwood, B. farmer, & B. Lantz (Eds.), ''Aspects of Educational and Training Technology XXIII. London: Kogan Page; New York: Nichols.
 * Holmberg, B. (1995). Theory and practice of distance education-2nd edition. London and New York: Routledge.
 * Holmberg, B. (1995). The sphere of distance-education theory revisited. ZIFF Papiere, 98. Hagen: FernUniversitat, ZIFF.
 * Holmberg, B. (1997). Distance-education theory again. Open Learning 12(1), 31-39.
 * Holmberg, B. (1998). Critical reflection, politics, obscurantism and distance education. Epistolodidaktika 2, 27-37.
 * Holmberg, B. (1999). The conversational approach to distance education. Open Learning 14(3), 58-60.
 * Holmberg, B. (2000). Status and trends of distance-education research. In E. Wagner, & A. Szucs (Eds.), Research and innovation in open and distance learning 1-5. Prague: European Distance Education Network - EDEN.
 * Holmberg, B. (2003). Distance Education in Essence. An overview of theory and practice in the early twenty-first century. Oldenburg: Bibliotheks-und Informationssystem der Universitat Oldenburg.
 * Holmberg, B. (2005). Distance Education and Languages: Evolution and Change. New Perspectives on Language and Education. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
 * Holmberg, B. (2005). The Evolution, Principles and Practices of Distance Education, Vol.II. Oldenburgh: B/S-Verlag der Carl von Ossietzky Universitat.