"Deep" approaches to learning, as defined by Biggs (1987) and others, would generally mean that a student is interested in the academic task, searches for meaning in the task, personalizes the task, integrates aspects of the task into a whole, sees relationships between this whole and previous knowledge, and tries to theorize about the task. A student who adopts a "surface" approach, on the other hand, sees the task as a demand to be met to reach some other goal, sees the aspects of the task as discrete, is worried about the time the task is taking, avoids personal meanings in the task, and relies on memorization. The construct of "deep" and "surface" approaches to study was studied using a sample of 1,843 distance education students at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. The research was part of a broader study that used a modified version of the Distance Education Students' Progress Questionnaire (DESP). The results of the study indicate that students are memorizing within a deep approach, a construct that had been considered at odds in earlier research. The study also noted the absence of "questioning" from the deep approach subscale, asking how deep learning can exist in the absence of such questioning. The study points to a somewhat different meaning of "deep approaches" than has previously been perceived. The findings give rise to questions and potential concerns about the curriculum, teaching methods, and assessment regimes experienced by these students and the nature of the distance learning context and how this context is construed by distance learners. (Contains 13 references.) (KC)