John Wood Community College's Open Learning Center (OLC) offers an alternative to traditional classroom approaches using one-to-one instruction, a competency-based learning format, and flexible scheduling. Due to concern over the high attrition rate in OLC courses, a study was conducted to identify the characteristics and variables contributing to successful course completion. The study sample consisted of all students enrolled during fall 1981 in one of four courses (i.e., Introduction to Math, Rhetoric and Composition I, Computer Usage and Impact, and Principles of Accounting I). Student records provided information on 13 non-academic variables (i.e., number of days per week and time of day spent at OLC, student intent, financial aid status, gender, age, time out of high school, and number of semester hours transferred to and completed at the college), and the Rotter Internal-External Control Scale was used to determine students' locus of control. The study found no significant relationship between any of the non-academic variables or locus of control and successful course completion and no significant differences in the locus of control of the OLC students and those in other educational settings. It was concluded that further research was needed to determine the characteristics contributing to successful course completion. (LAL)