This study identifies and explains students’ preferred pedagogies and their perceptions on the influence of pedagogies at the Open University of Tanzania（OUT）on their learning processes.It was conducted at OUT because of the reported high dropout rate and low graduation rate.The study has revealed how students want to learn in distance education,which is a useful information for stakeholders to design activities aimed at improving the learning environment to increase students’ retention and graduation rates in distance learning.The study was guided by the Community of Inquiry Framework（to identify and analyse pedagogies at OUT）,and the Interaction Equivalency Theorem（to identify and analyse students’ preferences）.The study employed a descriptive mixed methods research design to study students’ preferred pedagogies and their perceptions on the influence of pedagogies at OUT on their learning.Questionnaires were administered to 201 undergraduate students majoring in education programmes at the university.This was followed by six sessions of focus group discussions with 31 of the questionnaire participants..The findings revealed several pedagogies that were used at OUT to foster interactions,deliver learning materials,offer tutorial support,as well as learning assessment practises.Students preferred to have more face-to-face interaction sessions with their instructors than with fellow students,as they considered instructors more knowledgeable than students.Besides the preference on interaction with instructors,students had preferences on pedagogies that facilitated easy access to user-friendly learning materials,meaningful feedback,and required tutorial support.In students’ perspectives,pedagogies at the institution fell short of their preferences in terms of utility and benefits on the learning process,as they confirmed to have limited interactions with instructors,difficulty to access learning materials,as well as limited timely and meaningful feedback.Findings of this study support the Community of Inquiry Framework that,in distance education,student-instructor interaction is vital to reduce the transactional gap that exists because of the separation of students and instructors.Findings also revealed that student-instructor interaction is not supposed to be replaced by other kinds of interaction,as in students’ perspectives,it is important and valuable interaction that provides an opportunity for students to get detailed feedback and tutorial support.This is contrary to what has been suggested by the Interaction Equivalency Theorem that technology can be used to develop quality-learning materials in multiple formats,which can be used to minimize student-instructor interactions.Since students’ preferences are varied,this study recommends that the university should make use of technology to complement traditional ways of teaching,rather than replacing them,in order to provide multiple pedagogies that cater for the varied learning needs of their students.