General interest in distance education, which is perceived as a practical choice by many students, and education institutions is increasing more and more in parallel with the advances in the information and communication technologies. High motivation level, maturity, and self-discipline are seen as necessary general characteristics of successful students for the achievement of distance education programs and for the continuity of students to the programs (Willis, 1994). A combination of cognitive style, personality characteristics and self-expectations is asserted to be able to predict the achievement in distance education (McIsaac & Gunawerdena, 1996). By this study, it is aimed to determine the self-efficacy beliefs for distance education, achievement goals, and self-regulation abilities of students, which are some of the characteristics motivating students of distance education, and to suggest a relationship between these characteristics and academic success.