Distance education in general and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)-based learning in particular have increased access to and expanded formal education for those who, due to situational and institutional factors, were formerly unable to participate in postsecondary education. However, ICT-based learning in Adult Education is not without its challenges. The qualitative case study which informed this paper sought to identify some of these challenges and examined the strategies employed by learners and their facilitators to address those challenges.

Non-formal education is unquestionably the most elusive and ill-defined sector of distance educators' work worldwide. The label gets pasted on such diverse activites as health education, agricultual education and traning for farmers, women's group activities, income-generation activities, adult literacy classes, leisure time education for adults, out-of-school schools for young dropouts, second language teaching, AIDS awareness campaigns, and work-based traning at worker and management levels.

This paper present case studies of distance education (DE) at two universities of the English-speaking Caribbean. It outlines the initation, development, implementation and outcomes of: (i) programmes offered by the Institute of Distance and Continuing Education of the University of Guyana and: (ii) the Certificate in Education offered by distance via the University of the West Indies Distance Education Experiment.

Essentially, it is education that has been, is and will continue to be the single most significant agent of change and development. Our times and lives, however, find it deficient as we look for more from it, faster and for all. For this we turn to distance education, which lends flexibility, variety, speed and enhanced reach. In the ultimate analysis though, it is the people behind it and those in front of it who are the real change-agents.

People are interested in the costs and economics of distance education because they think it lowers costs. Education was, and to a large extent still is, labour-intensive. By the 1970s few countries could afford the costs of providing education for burgeoning populations of young people, let alone the emerging demand from adults for lifelong learning. It was hoped that the use of technology would bring the unit costs of education down (Jamison, Suppes & Wells, 1974: 57, Eicher, Hawridge, McAnany, Mariet & Orivel, 1982: 40).