Using Technology to Deliver Distance Education in Computer Science*

During the past few years, four distance education courses in computer science were designed, developed, and delivered at Université Laval. These courses make use of thirteen 30‐minute television programs that form an integral part of the teaching and learning content. Each television program was rigorously designed for its role in the corresponding course. One of these courses is discussed in this paper. Data taken from distance and on‐campus students are used to address the following question: Does delivery mode (full television‐based distance education, partial television‐based distance education, in‐class education) affect learning? The main result of this study is that there was no significant difference in effectiveness of the distance learning approach compared to more traditional approaches.