Abstract
The Austrian Research Institute of Distance Education was founded in 1980 to serve a double purpose: offering ‘classical’ distance education at university level in co‐operation with the West German Distance University (Femuniversität); and supporting regional action research with institutions and individuals who require academic help to solve problems
Dietmar Larcher has been a Professor of Education at Klagenfurt University and the Research Institute since 1984. He is responsible for teacher in‐service‐training at the action research level. His paper describes the Austrian way of coping with the Mass University'.