Many universities and colleges are moving from traditional on-campus teaching to also teaching online courses to distant students. Institutions face many challenges in supporting their distant students and need a holistic view of the support that distant students require. This paper proposes ways that institutions could meet these needs of online (distance) students through exploring the stages that an online student progresses through from the student's perspective. The stages that an online student progresses through are: (1) Recruitment; (2) Enrolment; (3) Induction; (4) Participation; and (5) Graduation & Beyond. The "Melbourne Model" for supporting online students that is proposed recommends that institutions should put support procedures in place for each of these stages so that prospective and current online students have high quality experiences that are characterised by easy access to information, high quality learning experiences, and prompt, accurate and friendly responses to all enquiries. Academic staff are actively involved during the "Participation" stage (while students are enrolled in courses) and play the central role in the success of this stage. This stage is clearly important in influencing students' perceptions of their experience with the institution, but it is by no means the only critical stage in a student's journey from recruitment to graduation. Administrative staff are essential for the institution's success in online teaching as they are key players during "all" stages of students' online experiences. Seeing students' experiences as a whole is essential for the student to move seamlessly through their journey of online education and for the institution to provide the support needed at each stage.A bibliography is provided.