Benefits and costs of computer conferencing in adult education

Abstract The fall in the cost of computers and communication equipment in the 1980s makes the use of computer conferencing for adult education increasingly practicable in the 1990s. Open University experience demonstrates the practicality and potential value of the use of computer conferencing, and indicates how conferencing could be used to reduce production costs in mass distance education courses. The experience suggests that conferencing can be more cost effective than face-to-face methods for teaching adults in any type of institution, and that it may he best suited to the teaching of subjects in social sciences and the humanities.