Any one of a number of issues can affect student success in a distance education course. Often there is a complex interplay between environmental, background and psychological factors, and student success can not be easily separated from the issues of course design and teaching. Applying Billings Model for Completion of Correspondence Courses can identify the factors that help predict completion, but other issues also have to be examined.

Billings' model breaks down the predictors for success into four types of variables. Organizational variables are those areas that reflect involvement in a course. GPA, class level, previous experience with correspondence courses and interaction with classmates fall into this category. Background variables reflect educational outcomes at a post-secondary level. Standardized test scores and college preparation are identified in this category. Environmental variables reflect they amount of support from family and employer as well as responsibilities to them. Proximity of the instructor to the student also identifies this category. The final category is the outcome and attitudinal variables. These variables account for how a student feels about the course attributes and how these attributes will affect them. Is the course practical, does the student feel isolated, is the student having a hard time with the course materials, delivery and content? These questions address this category of variables.

Billings also addresses two other factors in his model. The date the first lesson is submitted and a student's intent to complete a course both influence successful completion. The text is unclear on the method associated with using Billings' model to predict success. This model can be put to use by developing an evaluation tool, such as a survey. This survey can be given to the students once at the beginning of the course and once again shortly after a predetermined submittal date for the first assignment. This date would probably need to be stated in the Study Guide as a recommended date in a time line of assignments and readings.

How would this survey look? It would be fairly easy to develop questions that address three of the four categories of variables (organization, outcome/attitudinal and environmental). The background variables can be assessed administratively by contacting a registrar. The survey can be designed with open-ended questions or for ease of evaluation a rating scale can be developed. Let's say we want to know about a student's experience with correspondence courses, an organizational variable. The open-ended question might read, "Describe your experience with other correspondence courses?" The rating scale question would read, "Circle the number below that describes your experience with correspondence courses." Where the number 1 indicates no experience and the number 5 indicates a high degree of experience.

Some of the specific variables such as the amount of support from family or the student's feelings about the difficulty of the course will be hard to assess at the beginning of the course, so a second survey that addresses these variables would have to be developed and deployed after our predetermined cut off date. This is important because the predetermined cut off date provides information about how the student is progressing with regards to submitting assignments.

Using this method of deployment reflects good use of Billings' model, but it also provides information that can be used for intervention. By examining attitudes over time, an instructor can address specific issues that may not have been noticed before. This ties in to Moore and Kearsley's recommendation that guidance be provided at different levels to ensure that the student is supported. The instructor can modify the course design if students develop problems with the lessons. Feedback can be increased or delivered differently for students with problems in this area. Being aware of and attending to these needs might be key in retaining borderline students.

Moore and Kearsley detail other factors in student success that fall just outside of Billings' variable categories or are not addressed at all. Distance education students might be anxious about learning. They are likely to have other commitments that rank higher than their distance education course. The authors suggest that learning style inventories can be useful in identifying successful distance learners, as can the types of motivation the learners have.

My experience with distance education is limited to this course. Other than my interest in the topic and how it pertains to my career goals, the single most important factor in my success will be the flexibility this format offers. I work full time and have family responsibilities. I can log on at my convenience to submit assignments. I can do the work when my family is away or late at night when only the dog and I are awake. Included in my evaluation of flexibility is the option of doing online research. This hasn't proven to be as quick as I like, but the library isn't open twenty-four hours a day either.

My educational background is probably the second most important factor that will contribute to my success. The EMC program promotes the use of technology. I have had enough experience with the different types of hardware and software that getting up and running in the first two days was not a problem. This experience has also allowed me find work arounds for the minor technical problems I have encountered. I probably would not have been able to do this two years ago, and I would be on that list of students struggling with technology. My undergraduate and graduate work in instructional design also allows me to incorporate what I am learning into what I already know in a useful and meaningful way.

I am of the opinion that student-teacher interaction is the most important interaction when the student is totally unfamiliar with the material. I have not had too many problems yet, but the one question I did have was easily answered in an online chat. The initial classroom meetings were effective in establishing a rapport with the instructor and the format of this course allows for continued interaction. This course requires that the student come forward with problems, and the text mentions this as a characteristic of many adult distance education students.

Moore and Kearsley point out that none of the topics of discussion in the text exist in a vacuum. The key element in considering issues that affect student success is to be aware of them and plan and design with these student attributes and experiences in mind. Billings' model examines the variables that affect success, and this model can be effectively used to predict success and make necessary modifications to instruction, interactions or intervention. This implies that not only the student is involved. Student success is the result of varied factors that should be in the consciousness of instructors and designers and accommodated when necessary.