The seminar reports the findings of a recent research study aspiring  to unveil and illuminate some of the adult learning processes as well as the ‘fine-grained’ processes that are at work during the organization and delivery of the courses at the Open University, with the aim to underline the factors influencing these processes.  It has as its main units of analysis adult learners’ and their educators’ experiences and perceptions of adult learning in a distance education context and rests profoundly on a research framework that views certain programme elements as being vital in unveiling t