Introduction

A more recent area of investigation targets personality characteristics that distinguish students who complete distance education courses from those who do not. Two of those characteristics are learner control and locus of control.

Closely related to the concept of learner control is locus of control. Locus of control is a concept developed by Rotter (1966) that describes whether people feel that control of their lives rests in their own hands (internal locus of control) or inforces outside of themselves (external locus of control). People with a strong internal locus of control see themselves as being in control of all aspects of their lives. They believe that their behavior makes a difference in the outcome of a situation and they tend to be highly motivated. Those with strong external locus of control beliefs see their lives controlled more by events outside of their control than within their control. They may believe that their behavior doesn't matter because it has no effect on their lives. These people tend to blame other people and their surroundings for their problems and they are not highly motivated. Most people fall somewhere between these two extremes.

Dille and Mezack (1991) investigated a variety of student characteristics to determine predictors of distance education course drop-out among community college students. Among the tests they administered to 51 community college students enrolled in a variety of telecourses was the Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control Scale. They found that unsuccessful distance education students scored toward the higher end of the internal-external continuum, that is, they tend to be more controlled by external events.

The relationship between learner control and locus of control is a delicate one. Distance education courses should have enough freedom to allow students with internal locus of control (and its accompanying high motivation) to work through t he program at their discretion but, at the same time, the courses need to retain enough control to keep the externally controlled students motivated.

Eaton presents a list of suggestions to WWW course developers that represents a continuum of learner control -- from one page documents with internal links to multi-page documents with links to various WWW sites. The educator must initially d ecide how much freedom to give her students and be prepared to continually modify the learner control based upon student feedback and participation levels.

As in any educational delivery system, some students will be unsuccessful. But the goal of good instructional design is to reduce that number to a minimum. Balancing learner control to satisfy the needs of students at both ends of the external-internal locus of control continuum is a difficult undertaking and will only be successful through continual trial and feedback within each distance education course.

Dille, B., & Mezack, M. (1991). Identifying predictors of high risk among community college telecourse students. The American Journal of Distance Education, 5(1), 24-35.

Dille and Mezack investigated demographic, learning style, and locus of control factors as predictors of distance education course drop-out among community college students. They gathered demographic information and administered the Rotter Internal- External Locus of Control Scale and Learning Style Inventory to 151 community college students enrolled in a variety of telecourses.

Comparing successful distance education students with high risk students, Dille and Mezack concluded that high risk students tended to be younger, divorced, have fewer college credits, a lower grade point average, a more concrete learning style, and were more dependent on teachers and other students in the learning environment.

The authors clearly present seven research questions which address demographic variables, locus of control, and learning styles. They use measures whos e validity and reliability are well documented and present the findings clearly and succinctly.

The sample used in this study -- community college students taking lower division college courses -- limits the generalizability of the findings. Dille and Mezack found that older students tended to be more successful in distance education than younger students. Since community college students tend to be younger than upper division or graduate college students, many of the factors that Dille and Mezak found may be a function of age. Including a wider sample that includes upper division and graduate students would result in a wider age range and would allow researchers to see if the same factors affect drop out behavior in older distance education students.

Little research has been conducted into the personality traits that characterize a successful distance education student. In addition to investigating demographic variables, Dille and Mezack (1991) make a significant contribution to the understand ing of two important student characteristics: learning styles and locus of control.

Eaton, M. (1997). Interactive features for HTML-based tutorials in distance learning programs. [Online] Available: http://elmo.scu.edu.au:80/sponsored/ausweb/ausweb96/educn/eaton/paper.html

Eaton begins his article by noting that interaction suffers at the hands of distance education. He reviews research that explains how students move through computer aided instruction in traditional settings, and encouraged by the new multimedia capabilities of the Internet, he suggests that researchers take what they have learned from the classroom and tailor it for distance education on the World Wide Web (WWW).

Eaton focuses on learner control and ways that researchers can modify how much control a learner has over the presentation of course materials. He defines learner control as, "the ability of the user to select the content of the program he/she is using which allows more learner-content interaction than program controlled computer assisted instruction."

Eaton distinguishes between FullMinus control mechanisms, where students are presented all learning materials and can select what they want to study and what they want to ignore, and LeanPlus mechanisms, in which students get a portion of the lesson and can select to add more as needed. Students using FullMinus mechanisms cover more material, according to research cited by Eaton.

In addition to suggesting that Web course developers transfer features of computer assisted instruction which have proved to be beneficial to learners, Eaton suggests that developers provide for learner control to give learners an opportunity to select as much, or as little, material to cover. This control would help reduce Internet connection costs for distance learners. He also suggests the use of built-in "hypernotes" that would provide communication between student and instructor from the content Web page.

Eaton's enthusiastic vision of the World Wide Web's future in distance education is exciting. He foresees Web pages of content that can be controlled by the learner and further options, found only on the Internet, to add to the information presented. Instructors might provide lists of Web pages to search for further information or learners may be encouraged to explore on their own, right from their course content page.

It is not certain that what works with computer assisted instruction in a traditional setting will work equally well in a World Wide Web course. Research into how students in these two modes of delivery should be called for before widespread development of Web courses begins.

Dille, B., & Mezack, M. (1991). Identifying predictors of high risk among community college telecourse students. The American Journal of Distance Education, 5(1), 24-35.