The research reported here is part of a study of the ways in which university academics design and incorporate computer-facilitated learning (CFL) environments into their courses. This study was based on archive material only (the initial application and final report) for 36 externally-funded technology-based projects from a number of disciplines. Projects were sorted into categories based on educational assumptions and practices. Categories were then compared and refined so as to reveal their major sources of similarity and difference. The resulting framework is one in which the use of educational technology in higher education can be interpreted in terms of several key qualitative dimensions which reflect academics’ beliefs about the origin of knowledge, the learning framework, control of the direction of learning, and the nature of the knowledge and of the learning process.