This paper reports the findings from the first stage qualitative data analysis of a longitudinal study investigating factors that affect students’ achievement in a distance learning English writing course. Data were collected from mandatory self-report questions embedded in questionnaires that were distributed by post and an online survey. The participants included 164 students studying in the English Department of an open university in Indonesia1. The participants were asked to identify the challenges they encountered during their learning on the first of four writing courses. They were also asked to identify possible solutions to the challenges. Their responses were analysed using NVivo version 10 and the responses were then coded and grouped into themes. An emerging area related to student expectation was identified. To reduce biases of the researcher, two randomly selected samples of the responses were reviewed through a double-blind review. The findings show that the challenges fell into three categories: academic, technical, and personal issues. Similarly, solutions consisted of the same three issues. Meanwhile, student expectations focused on academic and technical issues.