This paper describes a research-in-progress study on the link between "learner control" and "self-efficacy" of postgraduate students in an online programme at a New Zealand university. Even though students are familiar with computers and Internet usage, learning online may still pose a challenge, especially for inexperienced online learners. By enabling learners to control their own learning, their interactions increase along with their self-efficacy and a sense of belonging to the learning community, all of which contribute to better academic outcomes. However, few studies have looked at the link between "self-efficacy" of online learners and "learner control" in a real online setting. To do so, students in a postgraduate online programme embedded with "learner control" were selected as the sample group. The preliminary findings showed a positive relationship between these two variables, though not as strong as expected. Follow-up research is being undertaken with a larger sample group.