ABSTRACT
The new problem for educational providers, posed by developments in educational technology, is the question of which teaching methods and channels of communication to use, in order to achieve a given set of educational aims. This question does not simply relate to new ways of teaching traditional subjects; it relates to different kinds of audiences, different kinds of subject matter, different kinds of courses, different forms of access to education, as well as to different study patterns amongst those who want to learn. The use of distance teaching methods to facilitate home-based, part-time study brings into consideration all those students who would not, or could not, attend full-time or evening classes, as well as the many different kinds of courses they might want to take. Distance teaching methods, as compared with the more traditional face-to-face teaching, involves quite different costs in terms of both money and manpower for the providers, as well as quite different cost structures. Equally the costs for students in money and time are quite different. In earlier chapters the range of new methods offered by technological developments has been described; the purpose of this chapter is to begin a discussion on how to choose between them.
