Abstract:

This paper is based upon a part of a longitudinal research design that investigates factors that affect student achievement in English writing courses in the context of distance learning. Over a span of two-year data collection, it was expected that the study would help identify and understand the conditions faced by distance language students and provide the most suitable solutions for eliminating the problems during the learning process. The questionnaires consisting of closed-ended questions and an open-ended question were administered to 405 students of an Indonesian open university who took the Writing 1 examination. One hundred and sixty four students participated in the study. They completed either postal survey or online survey using Bristol Online Survey (BOS). This paper discusses the results of the open-ended questions investigating the challenges that the students faced during learning the English writing at a distance and the solutions they made to respond to the challenges. The analysis of the open-ended questions suggested that the students were able to identify the challenges and work out their own solutions. They, however, expected to have much more interaction with the lecturers/tutors than they actually received.

Keywords:

Longitudinal research design, English writing, distance learning, challenges, solutions, expectations.