This paper presents a comparative study of the ways teaching material is designed in two European distance universities, the German FernUniversitaet and the Dutch Open Universiteit. It analyzes how the material is designed and produced, and it outlines the pedagogical and methodological issues that are the foundations for these practices. Moreover, this paper shows how the institutional constraints at work in these universities have affected pedagogical conception and practices. Each setting represents a particular model : a classical university operating at a distance (the FernUniversitaet) and an open and flexible institution (the Open Universiteit).