Developed as a service to the health sciences community, this monograph is intended as an introduction to interactive videodisk technology. It describes both videodisk and compact disk technologies and different videodisk player formats, and discusses some of the major factors that educators considering videodisk adoption should consider. The first chapter introduces videodisk technology and describes its various formats, including electrical capacitance videodisks, optical laser videodisks, videodisk display and interactive features, audio and interactive videodisks, and recordable videodisk technology. The second chapter describes compact disk systems, including compact disk-digital audio (CA-DA), compact disk-video (CD-V), compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact-disk interactive (CD-I), digital video interactive (DVI), and recordable (WORM) and erasable compact disks (still under development). The third chapter outlines videodisk system selection factors and includes information on choosing a technology format, comparing production processes, authoring tools, and integrated interactive videodisk systems. The final chapter briefly reviews the application of videodisk technology in the health professions. Six appendixes provide lists of selected information sources on videodisk technology, including associations, videodisk and general educational technology periodicals, books, industry guides, and training resource organizations. (14 references) (GL)