Although programmed instruction per se has not been used at the Open University (OU), the principles of programmed instruction have heavily influenced the development of systematic instruction and this paper describes the OU instructional development process in the context of seven principles of programmed instruction developed by Lysaught and Williams (1963): (1) student characteristics must be borne in mind; (2) objectives should be defined in operational terms; (3) subject matter should be arranged in a logical sequence of small steps; (4) there must be frequent active responses from students; (5) after each response, students must be able to check the accuracy of their responses; (6) students must be able to work at their own rates; and (7) the performance of students and the effectiveness of the programmed instruction should be evaluated. This discussion shows that, while these principles have influenced course development, they have not gained universal acceptance. Rather, the OU course teams have followed the principles where common sense dictated, and have abandoned them where the positive-rational philosophy underlying the principles appeared to cut across the interests of students. (JB)