The purpose of this symposium on research in distance education was to continue the process of building the network of scholars and climate of cooperation and communication necessary for further development of distance education and to provide an opportunity for discussion. Four main areas of focus for the symposium were learning and characteristics of learners; course design and communication; instruction and learner support; and theory, policy, and management. There are seven papers in this collection: "Learning Style Preferences and Distance Education: A Review of Literature and Implications for Research" (Diane Billings); "Thinking Holistically: A New Perspective on Distance Learning" (Elizabeth Burge); "A Paradigm for Generating Curriculum Design Oriented Research Questions in Distance Education" (Francis Dwyer); "Systems Analysis of Integrated Distance Education by Discourse" (Farhad Saba); "Computer Empowerment and the Ten Thousand Things" (Gerald M. Santoro); "Interactive, Televised Instruction: What Is Its Potential for Interaction?" (Helen Ritchie); and "National and State Policy in Distance Education: The Issues and Research" (Richard T. Hezel). Most of the papers contain references. (JLB)