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Our globally connected world is characterized by growing social mobility and diversification of life trajectories. In the light of recent societal and economic developments people more often change careers. Individuals even have multiple career paths and they are expected to engage in lifelong learning. Universities are also called upon to make students more employable and to enhance their flexibility in the labour market, while Web-based learning also may open access and widen potential markets for the universities, motivating a larger and diverse group of students to participate in higher education. Due to these changes there is a growing need for flexible deliverance of education. Distant learning and adult learning take an important part in this. In a lifelong career perspective the need for people to participate in education may differ, as well as the educational choices that students make. This variety makes it necessary to study what factors are important for the educational choices of students. In this paper, different factors, such as age, gender, rate of studies and parenthood was analysed in order to see how these relate to different motivational factors for choosing a web-based course. The research focuses on the questions: Which students choose web-based courses and what are their motivations to do so?

The present study was based on a sample of 1 270 beginner students during the spring semester 2011 at web-based courses at the department of education, Umeå University. The data was based on a questionnaire covering the student´s background characteristics and a number of items focusing on the motives for choosing a distance learning course. The motives could be categorized into four different motives: (1) Format, (2) Content, (3) Economic, and (4) Curiosity. The results showed that Format was regarded as the most important factor for choosing an Internet-based course. The second most important motivational factor was Content, followed by Curiosity and Economic. Group differences were investigated with respect to age, gender, parenthood and rate of study. Mature students had higher ratings on the Format motivational sub-scale than younger students. However, for the Economic motivational sub-scale younger students had higher ratings than mature students. There were no age differences with respect to the Content and Curiosity motivational sub-scale. Females had higher ratings on Format motivational sub-scale than males. Similarly, females had also higher ratings on the Content motivational sub-scale than males. However, for the Economic motivational sub-scale males had higher ratings than females. There were no significant gender differences with respect to the Curiosity motivational sub-scale. Moreover, we examined whether there were differences in motivational ratings between students with and without children. Students with children had higher ratings on the Format motivational sub-scale than students without children. Similarly, students with children had also higher ratings on the Content motivational sub-scale than students without children. However, for the Economic motivational sub-scale, students without children had higher ratings than students without children. There were no differences between students with or without children on the Curiosity motivational sub-scale. Finally, we examined whether there were differences in motivational ratings between students admitted to half-time or full time studies. Students enrolled in full time studies had higher ratings on the Economic motivational sub-scale than students in half time studies. Similarly, full time students had also higher ratings on the Curiosity motivational sub-scale than half time students. There were no differences between full-time and half-time students with respect to the Format and Content motivational sub-scale.

The findings show that distant education fulfils an important function for mature students, women and students with children. These groups presumably consider the flexibility that web-based courses provide advantageous. Family situations or working-life obligations may contribute to this. Changes in people´s working lives are likely to continue, which presumably increases the demand for flexible learning situations. It would be of interest to collect and analyse more data that relates to the lifelong career development of students, covering the wide range of ages as suggested in the theme for this conference. Further studies may therefore also incorporate data that extensively shows what choices students make by adding more socio-economic factors for analysis.