Success and failure in distance education: perceptions of South African students and lecturers in Business Management

This article presents the results of a recent investigation at the University of South Africa that attempted to identify the post-enrolment factors that lecturers and students see as having important influences on students' success in undergraduate Business Studies courses. Data were gathered from students enrolled in all years of the BCom degree and from lecturers in one department servicing that degree. Various forms of analysis revealed a strong agreement between lecturers and students on factors that have the potential to lead to student success but a much weaker agreement about factors that might lead to student failure. These differences have implications for lecturers' instructional practices and for students' approaches to studying. South African Journal of Higher Education Vol.17(2) 2003: 147-15