Distance education, especially in the form of correspondence study, is not a new phenomenon, but the success of the British Open University has given it a new image. Distance education programs have been developed to respond to a variety of societal and educational situations for which traditional classroom-based approaches are less feasible. They may also be preferred over classroom programs by students for whom flexibility, freedom, autonomy, and price are important. Designers of distance instruction must accommodate a number of variables which are not normally encountered by designers of materials for teacher-centered programs. Probably the most salient of these problems is the distance aspect of the instructional process, but the need for personalization, an effective teaching/learning approach tailored to the distance situation, and the special dynamics of the distance course development process are all aspects to be considered. Distance education represents fertile ground for both theory-oriented and practice-oriented research on instructional processes. Recent developments in learning and instructional theory hold great promise for the advancement of instructional design science. An orderly means is needed for dissemination of this knowledge into the practice of distance education. (KC)