Chapter eight of Michael Moore and Greg Kearsky's Distance Education: A Systems View looks at a number of issues that affect the distance learner. It is significant that one understands the attributes of distance learners, what affects their achievement, how they look at distance learning, and what they anticipate from a distance learning program. Although each of these issues can be studied separately, it is important that one recognizes the connection between each. Once we interpret the connection between each we can better understand the distance learner.
There are a variety of conditions that affect the outcome of a student progress in distance education. In general, students are more likely to complete a course if they perceive the content as relevant to their career or personal interest. The difficulty of the course matters. If students are able to handle administrative problems, receive feedback on course work, and frequently interact with others there will be an increase in the completion rate of a distance learning course.
Subsequent factors that affect the success in distance learning programs primarily include educational background, personality characteristics, extracurricular concerns, and course-related problems. Design and teaching factors also influence the student's success rate. More detailed predictors of success in distance education courses include the following: prior formal education, brief length of time since last credit course, and the learning style of the program. Individuals who are more fields independent and motivated are more likely to complete the courses. Other factors are how well the courses relate to ones career or personal interests, the flexibility of the course, the degree of support available, the types of media used, flexibility in scheduling, the amount of feedback received on course progress and the greater amount of interaction with others.
The best indicators of success in a distance learning course are intent to complete, early submission of the initial assignment, and previous completion of other courses. The single most considerable variable was the student's intent to complete the course. Students who begin the course with motivation and the intention of completing have a better success rate. Those students who submit the first assignment early are likely to complete the course. Students who have been successful in prior distance learning courses are more prone to complete others.
It is due to a mixture of reasons why students do not complete distance learning courses. Unfortunately, many students who begin a distance learning program do not complete it. Formerly, the non-completion rate for distance learning was 30 to 50%. Currently the rate is about 30 %. There are several reasons why this happens including the following: lack of experience in distance learning, a long period of time has passed since the last credit course had been taken, students who are greatly influenced by their surrounding social environment, lack of support from family and employer, student senses the composition of the course as irrelevant, too little feedback received on their coursework, and if the student feels isolated.
Several researchers have presented models for predicting student completion. In 1989 Billings created a Model for Completion of Correspondence Courses. This model presents a relationship between many variables. Billings' Model for Completion of Correspondence Courses is comprised of background variables, organization variables, outcome/attitudinal variables, and environmental variables. Background variables include SAT scores and college preparation. Organizational variables include grade point average, class level, experience with correspondence courses, and classmate support. The outcome and attitudinal variables include practical value, educational goals, loyalty, and satisfaction with the course, difficulty with the course, feedback, and isolation. The environmental variables include employment, employer support, family responsibilities, family support, and proximity to Instructor. These variables along with the date of the first lesson submission and the intent to complete course lead to determining course completion. Billings' study concluded that the students who made the most progress possessed the following characteristics: