Distance Educational Practice is today supported by a range of information systems (IS) design theories. Still, there are surprisingly few strong pedagogical ideas and constructs that are communicated across distance educational institutions. Instead it is often the technology, the software and the medium that is at the centre of attention as we frequently discuss notions such as learning management systems, courseware, chat room, streaming media and blogs. This paper argues that design concepts should be used to bridge the gap between design theories and distance educational practice. It is also argued that genre theory could be instrumental in framing the characteristics of such techno-pedagogical genres in a way that constitutes a powerful level of communicating and disseminating new ideas within and across educational communities. (Contains 5 figures and 3 tables.)