Distance education exhibits two phenomena: first, the high percentage of students who drop out during their formative process: 50%, according to research by the National Education Ministry (NEM)1; second, that of students who, despite adverse conditions (in their personal life or their education), achieve academic success during their learning and formative processes. These phenomena have attracted the attention of researchers who have studied them from a perspective of resilience. The study described in this article focused on resilience as a factors of the continuance and academic success of students of a Psychology course at the National Open University for Distance Education (UNAD – Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia). A CREU2 test was applied and a semi-structured interview was conducted. The results show that collaborative groups foster community resilience because interaction with other groups promotes social learning, and therefore brings out their own strengths as well as those of the others. In general, students who acknowledge their weaknesses and failings, and seek to correct them, possess a level of introspection, which is a factor for academic success. In future research on this subject, it is important to consider other variables like genre, age, semester, marital status, etc., and to analyze their impact on academic performance in distance education.
keywords:
academic success, resilience, distance education, desertion, teamwork, initiative
