This paper argues that individual differences among undergraduate students are important factors to the effectiveness of asynchronous learning and that students' needs and perceptions must be taken into account in the design of Web-based instruction (WBI). A student typology is presented based on evidence from an ethnographic study of a WBI undergraduate course in the Education program at the University of Alberta. "EDPY202: Technology Tools for Teaching and Learning" is philosophically based on the perspective that learning is a process of constructing knowledge rather than a process of recording knowledge. Although EDPY202 is primarily a software tools literacy course, it does provide the students with some exposure to curriculum integration. Qualitative data were collected from an EDPY202 class with an enrollment of 700 students between September 1998 and June 1999. A total of 116 students volunteered to be interviewed. The great majority of the students, 72, were 19 to 24 years old; 28 students were 25 to 35 years old and 16 were over 35. The method used to investigate the course relied in part on participant observation and in-depth interviews in order to construct the categories through which the participants themselves interpreted their experience. The majority of students interviewed liked the course and spoke positively about the self-directed, active learning experience. Results are discussed in terms of: developing a new vocabulary; written versus spoken communication; difficulty with active learning; feelings of isolation and exclusion; overcoming technical problems; and marking criteria. (Contains 13 references.) (AEF)