On-line delivery has been widely adopted by Tertiary institutions for the presentation of post- graduate subjects and courses to part time distance education students. The road to success for this group of students is often quite rough. The ubiquity and the pervasiveness of the Internet and world wide web provide a ready platform for the development of virtual learning communities with the potential to make this rough road a little smoother. They also raise equity issues for participation and retention.

This paper reviews the factors which make the web so attractive for on-line learning. Two Information Technology based subjects are offered by on-line delivery at a multi-campus university. A number of factors indicates the success of this initiative in meeting the individual needs of these post-graduate distance learners. However, it is evident that on-line delivery raises its own set of barriers to engagement in learning in addition to those encountered by part time students studying in distance mode. For some, combinations of these barriers prove insurmountable while for the majority these are only temporary hurdles to straddle in achieving success. It concludes that those who succeed, develop more positive attitudes to the technology and are empowered by the acquisition of new knowledge and skills to apply these in the workplace and in other learning situations.