Low Cost Distance Education Strategies: the use of appropriate information and communication technologies

Thomas Hülsmann studied at the University of T�bingen and the London School of Economics. He earned his Masters Degree in Mathematics from the University of Bielefeld in 1976. After a decade of teaching Mathematics in several African countries, he came to distance education through his experience in developing schoolbooks for mathematics in Madagascar, where he worked for the GTZ (German Association for Technical Co-operation) until 1994. He then took a Masters Degree in Education and International Development/ Distance Education at the Institute of Education in London. In 1996 , Dr. H�lsmann joined the International Research Foundation (IRFOL) under its director Hilary Perraton to do research on cost-effectiveness of distance education in a number of European countries. Since 1999, Dr. H�lsmann has been the Associate Director of the Center for Research in Distance Education at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. He is the developer and will be the instructor of the Economics of Distance Education course within the MDE program. His published work include: Costs of Distance Learning. In K. Harry (Ed.) 1999 Open Learning for the New Society: The Role of Higher Education, London Routledge Costing Distance Education: A guide for Managers (introduced by H Perraton, forthcoming) Together with H. Perraton (1998) Planning and Evaluating systems of Open and Distance Learning DfEE