Thomas Hülsmann studied at the University of Tübingen and the London School of Economics before he obtained his Masters Degree in Mathematics at 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. 1996 he 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 he works at ASF (Arbeitsstelle Fernstudienforschung) at the Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg. Together with Prof. Dr. B. Holmberg and Prof. Dr. O.Peters as visiting experts, he has taught OMDE601 (Foundation of Distance Education) several times. He has developed OMDE606 (Economics of Distance Education) which he regularly teaches with Prof. Dr. G.Rumble as visiting expert.

Recently Thomas Hülsmann developed the Certificate Distance Education in Developing Countries within the UMUC/Oldenburg cooperation. The certificate comprises two newly developed courses. The first course Policies for Distance Education in Developing Countries (MDE 625) is based on a syllabus developed by H.Perraton of IRFOL who participated as visiting expert. The second course Educational Technologies for Distance Education in Developing Countries (OMDE 626) is pioneered in Fall 2002.

Beyond this cooperation with UMUC Thomas Hülsmann developed a Professional Seminar for Distance Education in Developing Countries which will be pioneered in cooperation with three African Distance Learning Centers (Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana) of the Global Developing Network (GDLN) of the World Bank Institute.

His published work include:

-- Perraton, H. & Hülsmann, T. (1998). Planning and Evaluating systems of Open and Distance Learning. Sheffield: Department for Education and Employment.
-- Hülsmann, T. (1999). Costs of Distance Learning. In K. Harry (Ed.), Open Learning for the New Society: The Role of Higher Education. London: Routledge.
-- Hülsmann, T. (2000). The costs of open learning: a handbook. Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg.

Two papers are forthcoming:

-- Hülsmann, T. (2002, forthcoming). Texts that talk back - Asynchronous conferencing: a possible form of academic discourse? In U. Bernath, Rubin, E. (Ed.), Reflections on teaching and learning in an online master program - A case study. (Vol. 6): Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg.
-- Hülsmann, T. (2002, forthcoming). The costs of online teaching: A cost-analysis of two certificate programs offered by the Center for Distance Education (ZEF) at Carl von Ossietzky University (Germany) within the UMUC Master of Distance Education program - a case study. In U. Bernath, Rubin, E. (Ed.), Reflections on teaching and learning in an online master program - a case study (Vol. 6). Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg.