A.W. (TONY) BATES is director of Distance Education and Technology in the Division of Continuing Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He has more than thirty years of experience in applying, managing, and researching the application of technologies to higher education and is one of the world's most quoted authors in the field of distance education. A founding member of the British Open University, he has also worked as a consultant on the use of technology in university teaching for the World Bank, UNESCO, state higher education commissions in the United States, the Canadian International Development Agency, and for universities and government ministries of education in over thirty countries.