The major purpose of the workshop, "Setting a Global Agenda for the Nineties," was to identify an agenda for International Council for Distance Education (ICDE)-sponsored research. Three papers that were prepared for the workshop make up the major part of this report: (1) "Marrow Bone Thinking: Toward a Fair Representation of Qualitative Research in Distance Education" (Elizabeth J. Burge); (2) "Concepts of Experimental Inquiry in Distance Education: 'A Systems Perspective'" (Dan O Coldeway); and (3) "On European Distance-Education Research" (Borje Holmberg). It is noted in the preface that outcomes of this workshop include an agenda of eight projects and the development of the Distance Education Online Symposium (DEOS), which allows researchers to communicate with colleagues worldwide using BITNET, INTERNET, EARN, and other internationally accessible computer conference networks. Three appendixes contain the agenda of the workshop program, research questions arising from the workshop, and a list of the names and addresses of the workshop participants. Each paper includes an extensive bibliography. (ALF)