This paper reports on responses of 645 students (N = 6540) on 4 University of London (UoL) distance learning courses to a variety of course components. Published research on best practice in student learning stresses the value of active learning and of student collaboration. By contrast, our respondents report that they regard more active individual learning components such as reflection and self-assessment exercises as less helpful than course content such as readings, and they rate peer engagement much less highly than individual learning. We discuss why these learning behaviours and preferences seem to be at odds with accepted best practice, and explore possible implications for design and operation of online learning.