hurt student outcomes?” Thus, the
null hypothesis (see question 2 for a definition) that early MCS research studies sought to examine was “Distance delivery (or, as appropriate, technology-mediated delivery) of courses does not hurt student outcomes.” In these studies, the best possible results for distance education were those that supported the null hypothesis; that is, they demonstrated that distance education “does no harm.” And, from the results collected in Mr. Russell’s book and website, it appeared that different modes of delivery for the same materials actually did not hurt, so the great majority of these early studies show “no significant difference” (NSD) between student outcomes in face-to-face courses versus those delivered at a distance.
