Student perceptions of the situational,institutional, dispositional and epistemological barriers to persistence

Ethnography was used to elucidate barriers to completion in natural resource sciences distance education. The aim was to increase understanding of those variables associated with persistence and withdrawal, particularly to discern better the role of disciplinary content in these phenomena. The courses provide exemplars of epistemological stances that are broadly relevant. Both withdrawal and persisting students experienced situational, institutional, dispositional and epistemological problems that posed barriers to completion. Elucidation of the epistemological problems makes it evident that course content itself cannot be ignored in any theoretical or practical consideration of distance education attrition.