Otto Peters

His main contribution to the theory of distance education was his 1973 doctoral dissertation Die didaktische Struktur des Fernunterrichts: Untersuchungen zu einer industrialisierten Form des Lehrens und Lernens (The educational structure of distance education. Analysis of the most industrialized forms of teaching and learning). Noting that the field was dominated by Anglophone scholars, Desmond Keegan persuaded him to translate the main parts of this book into English. From 1969 to 1974 Peters was engaged in comparative distance teaching research whilst at the German Institute for Distance Education at the University of Tübigen. For over forty years the focus of his research was on the development and conceptual changes of distance education. He believed that not only industrialization, but also culture, economics and politics are highly influential on the respective distance teaching activities.

Peters' first theoretical analysis of distance education was published as a 45-page monograph in 1967 entitled Das Fernstudium an Universitäten und Hochschulen: didaktische Struktur und vergleichende lnterpretation: ein Beitrag zur Theorie der Fernlehre (Distance education at universities and higher education institutions: didactical structure and comparative analysis - a contribution to the theory of distance teaching). The second half of this monograph was translated and published by the University of Oldenburg and is also to be found in D. Sewart, D. Keegan and B. Holmberg (Eds.).

Peters started and established distance education research virtually as early as 1964. Hence he, together with Börje Holmberg, was called "a father of distance education research". In order to emphasize its importance and the special quality level of higher education he changed the so far mainly commercially used term "correspondence study" into the now worldwide accepted new term "Distance education".

As he was interested in the field of education he went on to do teacher training in West Prussia from 1940 to 1944. In 1947 he did further studies in History, English, Philosophy, Psychology and Pedagogy with the Humboldt-University of Berlin. While teaching he continued his studies and graduated from the Free University of Berlin in 1960. In 1972 he pursued his doctorate at the University of Tübingen.

Peters did his initial schooling from 1932 to 1940 in Berlin.

Dr. Otto Peters (born May 6, 1926) is the Founding Rector and professor emeritus at the FernUniversität (Distance Teaching University) in Hagen, Germany. He has made contributions to the conceptual development of distance education. His main theory was called The Industrial Model. In this monograph "Distance education and industrial production: a comparative interpretation in outline" (1967) he described distance education as the most industrialized form of teaching and learning. He incorporated business management terms to show the industrial characteristics of distance education such as division of labour, assembly line, mass production and planning.