Distance education through the Internet represents a paradigm shift in higher education. The implementation of an information technology (IT) enabled teaching and learning environment necessitates the redesign of conventional structures. This paper addresses some of the issues involved in the design and delivery of an Internet-based interdisciplinary graduate program in Informatics at Middle East Technical University in Turkey. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the development of a number of guidelines for leveraging the use of IT in distance education programs at universities.