This paper focuses on the Interactive and Distance Education Assessment (IDEA) laboratory, an assessment system developed by psychology students and faculty at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (New York) that incorporated learning styles, teaching styles, and other measures of individual difference into the evaluation of interactive and distance learning. Learning styles and their relevance to research on distance education are discussed, and the following five individual difference measures are described: self-efficacy; positive affect; locus of control; the Learning Style Inventory (LSI); and the Work Preference Inventory. Development of two versions of the IDEA system (i.e., a World Wide Web version and an Intranet version created in LotusNotes) is summarized. Preliminary results of a pilot study that incorporated learning style measures with the technology developed to deliver evaluation instruments are presented; satisfaction surveys and the LSI were delivered via the IDEA system to employees of an international company who participated in a distance education course on accounting and managerial finance topics. A copy of the satisfaction survey is included. (Contains 11 references.) (DLS)