Some articles show a “significant difference”. What is the best way to interpret these articles relative to the “no significant difference” phenomenon?
Both the No Significant Difference (NSD) website and Mr. Russell’s book are meant to provide a historical perspective on media comparison study (MCS) research. By amassing MCS research studies from the early 1900’s onward, these resources provide us with a picture of how MCS research evolved over time. In the early days of correspondence courses, the original question addressed in MCS research was “Does delivering courses at a distance hurt student outcomes?” Later, upon introduction of radio broadcast courses, then televised courses, then video education, then online education, the question became “Does delivering courses through technology 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 n
