He was born in Malmö, Sweden, in March 1924[1] and wrote profusely on distance education in Swedish, German and English.
[4] Holmberg studied English, German, Romance languages and education at the University of Lund and later went on to earn his doctorate in 1956.
After his retirement from the FernUniversität, Holmberg continued contributing both to research and debate on distance education as an active practitioner in the field.
In July 2003, Holmberg joined a project concerned with online teaching and learning initiated by Ulrich Bernath and Eugene Rubin.
Guided Didactic Conversation[2][6][7][1] Holmberg is primarily known for his theory of personal communication between instructors and learners in distance education.
In essence, Holmberg believed that by fostering empathy between learning and tutor parties through appropriate one-way and two-way interactions, learners will be motivated and encouraged to engage in their studies.