A study examined flexible delivery modes that could be used to provide adult literacy and basic education (ALBE) to students in rural areas of Victoria, Australia. Telephone interviews were conducted with 29 students and 20 tutors and administrators involved in community-based programs, the 3CCC Airwaves Learning radio program, and off-campus tutoring arrangements. Factors identified as barriers to delivery of ALBE to students in rural areas included the following: limited program funding, lack of infrastructure to support innovative provision, difficulty of predicting student numbers in advance, and lack of advocacy from ALBE students. Flexible modes of delivery, especially audioconferencing (teleconferencing) and audiographics, were deemed effective in ensuring equal access to group provision and its benefits for students isolated due to distance or social/economic factors. A cost analysis established that audioconferencing programs giving students access to group tuition are a costly program delivery mode; however, the alternative is the absence of group provision. Minimizing the number of delivery sites and increasing the number of students at each site were recommended as strategies for reducing costs. The student and tutor interview questions are appended along with 1991 ALBE statistics and a case study of an ALBE audiographic conferencing numeracy class. Contains 20 references. (MN)