A model of student progress and drop-out from postsecondary distance education courses includes components of background characteristics; motivation; academic environment; and the family, work, and social environment. The author recommends ways in which distance education courses might be formatted so as to reduce student drop-out. (Author/MLW)

Explains a model of drop-out from distance education courses and illustrates it with quotations from case studies of students in Australia; Papua, New Guinea; and the United Kingdom. Topics discussed include individual student characteristics, home and family circumstances, employment situation, educational background, motivation, and cost benefit…