A three-stage, computer-assisted distance education (CADE) project was undertaken to design a prototype of CADE that would improve the two-way communication in correspondence education in three respects: (1) the quality of the tutors' comments as to feedback effectiveness and motivational aspects, (2) the turn-round time of students' solutions to assignments, and (3) the quality of assignments. In the first two stages of the development work, the parts of the computer-assisted correspondence instruction were simulated by means of an optical reader and an operator at an automatic typewriter. The third stage involved developing and evaluating a real computer-assisted distance tutoring system and studying experimentally the effects of explicitly informing part of the students about the role of the computer in the teaching system. The final outcome is a system where the students' solutions are corrected by an optical reader. The results are analyzed by a computer which types out individualized comment letters to the students. The results of evaluating the system include the following: (1) Practical experience of the functioning of the system has been very positive, and (2) student responses to questionnaire items were positive regarding the answer forms, the turn-round time, the use of multiple choice as compared to traditional questions, and feedback comments. (EM)