ABSTRACT
Tertiary-level correspondence courses were formally introduced into dual-mode settings in India in 1962, but in-service workshops in study material development for academics only began in the late 1960s and, for support staff, not until the early 1980s. Such early staff development was limited and episodic. It operated in a context of ideological differences and institutional inertia. Even when the first Indian open universities were established, staff development was not conceived of as an integral part of such educational enterprise. There were no models to guide the planners and there were many detractors among the academics and senior managers. This was the environment in which the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) opened in 1985, and its Division of Distance Education (DDE) was created in 1986 to provide staff development.
