Designed to provide a broad picture of the state of instructional television for adults and to identify major issues relating to instructional telecourses, this reader presents 50 articles in seven categories relating to the production and distribution of telecourses. Section I presents six articles on the growth in the use of telecourses, which include national survey data on telecourse use, information on current practices regarding course production, and a historical overview of the last 40 years of instructional television in the United States. Section II provides seven articles on the design and production of telecourses, focusing on why they work or fail to work, and the purposes and steps of instructional design in the production process. Section III presents case studies of telecourse use in six locales. Section IV considers some of the aspects of implementing or offering telecourses, including selection processes, views of faculty teaching the courses, special services required by the distant learners, and administrative arrangements for telecourse use. In section V, five articles report on the characteristics of telecourse students/viewers and identify some unanswered questions about them. Section VI presents eight articles on the evaluation of telecourses. Finally, section VII deals with the broadcasting and distribution of telecourses, covering telecommunications policies, technological changes, technical considerations, and economics. (HB)