Changes in the makeup of the student population at postsecondary institutions will stimulate greater use of communications technology. While fewer high school graduates are entering colleges, increasing numbers of older adults are returning to school or seeking higher education for the first time. The increasingly diverse needs of these students and the declining academic skills of high school graduates make more individualized and directed instructional efforts necessary. In the absence of funding for additional personnel, schools must find technological answers to these demands, such as use of cable television, video, and microcomputers and computer games. Technology can also help in monitoring students' progress, not only to meet the requirements of those agencies providing financial aid but also to provide for assessing student capabilities and needs in order to arrange the best grouping of students for instructional purposes. Costs for such extensive uses of technology can only be kept low if institutions share in development of systems and software. (Author/PGD)