ABSTRACT
The term “bimodal” is being increasingly employed to describe the thrust in distance teaching and learning in addition to conventional face-to-face lecturing at the University of the West Indies (UWI) (Perraton, 1995). Both activities are not, however, mutually exclusive. Distance teaching as it exists today and as projected is the result of a gestation and evolution over almost two decades. In distance teaching, the typical transaction among teacher, learner and learning materials-whether printed materials or audio and video tapes-takes place, but it is possible for teacher and learner to never meet face to face. On the other hand, there can be various degrees of contact be tween the two, whether personally or through various telecommunications media.
