Proceedings ascilite Melbourne 2008: Full paper: De Fazio & Crock 241 Enabling learning, addressing retention: Supporting students via online tutorials with Smarthinking Teresa De Fazio and Michael Crock Open Universities Australia Enabling student learning through the provision of enhanced and positive distance learning as opposed to delivery often proves problematic for online learning. In 2007 Open Universities Australia (OUA) began an innovative long-term trial of an online writing tutorial intervention to deal with varied levels of academic writing skill competence amongst its students. The trial set out to provide a supplementary writing support tuition service that would enable the development of learner knowledge and skills that then might impact on learner satisfaction. The trial also set out to ascertain any effect this intervention strategy would have on retention into subsequent units, unit completion rates and student grades. A trial of the Smarthiking.com online writing lab ran over three study periods in 2007 and is reported upon in this paper. Keywords: student retention, completion; writing lab, learning support; Smarthinking; distance learning Introduction Whilst some commentators argue that technology assisted learning poses particular issues with distance and isolation felt by students and teachers, information and communication technologies (ICT) are also hailed as facilitating a range of learning and teaching opportunities for distance learning. Given the feedback from both tutors and students about distance learning, the objective of creating a dynamic and responsive teaching and learning experience poses a challenge for e-learning educationalists. Open Universities Australia is the leading online distance learning provider in Australia. The open enrolment scheme means that students are not required to have academic qualifications to enroll in undergraduate programs. Thus OUA is focused on providing a positive learning experience for students in terms of their academic experience. In investigating the study experience, OUA noted a tension between student and tutor expectations: while students reported they struggled with academic writing and looked to their tutors for detailed individualised writing guidance, their tutors often reported this proved untenable in terms of work load pressure and they did not necessarily have the expertise to teaching writing composition skills as their focus was discipline content. This paper reports on how an academic support intervention through Smarthinking.com’s online writing lab (OWL) was implemented to facilitate in addressing these tensions and provide an enabling environment that might result in improved retention and student progress. Literature review Whilst educationalists are united in their stance that learning environments must be enriching, positive experiences for all participants (students and teachers) they are certainly divided on the issue of e-learning as a modality that provides such experiences. Commentators such as Noble (Noble 1997; Noble 1998)and Feenberg (Feenberg 1999) provide arguments that remind educationalists that ICT are not necessarily going to provide an enabling environment where quality learning will take place. However, others argue that the development of ICT are now at a point where it can take an educational situation from a didactic one to a more dialogic one, particularly through computer mediated communication (Brown and Duguid 1995). E-learning is being regarded as providing opportunities to address issues of distance and ensuing difficulties (such as low student retention and satisfaction issues) that have traditionally plagued distance learning. Distance learning seems like a great idea overcoming limitations of time, geography, extra financial burden of traveling (Lockwood and Gooley 2001) and its appeal to varied groups of students including those who have added family/work responsibilities (Collins 2000) and who may not necessarily enter via traditional academic pathways with a solid educational background (Schuetze and Slowey 2000).