These papers stem from a working group which met to compile a research workplan on behalf of the European Commission DELTA project for aspects of advanced open and distance learning systems exploiting the new information technologies. Exploitation of the new technologies is a new solution to the need for periodic retraining in today's climate of constant technological change. The DELTA plan is a coherent training system which covers the course to be taken and the associated material, the prior authoring and production of courseware, the fundamental specifications of the hardware and the telecommunications which will be used. Contributions to this forum have come from such widely separated areas as communications technology hardware and educational psychologists, as well as commercially oriented courseware producers, computer scientists and those involved in cognitive science, linguistics, artificial intelligence, database design and the social and economic realities of educational provision.
