| Abstract: | This paper presents a study on the attraction of students to an open‐university‐type, media course programme, and their commitment to remain in the programme over time. The findings from this study include 1. When considering the impact on media (i.e. distance education) course commitment of course satisfaction, investments, and alternatives to media courses, perceived investment alone was able to account for 5% of the variance in the dependent measure. 2. Following multiple discriminant analysis, the profile outlining the highly committed media course student defined one who was regarded, satisfied, highly invested, low‐perceived cost accrued, with a significant number of years out of school (here, 10) prior to commencement in the media course programme. 3. Following multiple discriminant analysis, the profile defining the student who has completed a considerable number of course credits (versus the neophyte) was described as being highly invested, highly cost aware, and relatively lowly satisfied. Implications of such findings for distance education marketing are discussed. |
