Care must be taken to select technology appropriate to the teaching task in distance education. Five principles of media selection are: increasing student-system interaction, matching the medium with the materials, reducing duplication, choosing the most direct channel, and developing user-friendly systems. Interactiveness and efficiency of…

An Open University program to develop software for a microcomputer/speech synthesizer is described that could provide broad access to university programming, computer-assisted instruction, and data processing. The state of the art of speech synthesis and the problems encountered in program construction and trial are outlined. (MSE)

A group of academic staff at the Open University with little computer experience developed a computer program for instruction. Reasons for its inclusion in the course, procedures for its adoption, and initial evaluation are described. The course was one in research methods in education and the social sciences. (MSE)