ABSTRACT
This chapter describes that the course design should necessarily be such that the main teaching components such as textual materials, the media and tutorial provision that are employed in an integrated, holistic way. In this way the course team, having decided upon the course content, must decide upon the most effective ways of employing the above components. Within such an integrated framework the potential contributions of each component are not considered in isolation from the others but, where possible, attempts are made to employ them in complementary combinations. In distance educational institutions, such as the Open University, this amount of opportunity for integrated multi-media teaching is not available. Students and tutors are therefore much more critical and selective about the use of audio-visual materials during a tutorial unless it is seen to be of absolutely central relevance to the course.
