Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) has become sufficiently widespread to require attention to the relationships between its costs, administration and benefits. Despite difficulties in instituting them, quantifiable cost-effectiveness analyses offer several advantages. They allow educators to specify with precision anticipated instructional loads, to conduct valid long-range planning, to set criteria and goals against which instructional delivery can be measured, and to develop common bases for comparison of instructional alternatives. Cost-effective analyses for the design, development, and delivery of CAI can be based upon the specifications of cost derived from conclusions drawn from given features inherent in the instructional matrix and from postulates which can be reasonably adopted in the light of these given. Use of the analyses assists the educational planner in developing teacher-absent media as a replacement for repetitive personal instructional contact. (PB)