John Tyler Community College (JTCC) in Virginia founded the Extended Learning Institute (ELI) in 1982 as a program to develop and administer instruction via alternative delivery systems. Print-based, independent study courses have been the primary alternative system used, though telecourses were offered from fall 1983 through winter 1985 and again in spring 1987. A study was conducted to compare grade distributions for ELI telecourses and print-based courses as a means of assessing the relative effectiveness of the delivery systems. The final course grades of 321 telecourse students and 1,460 independent study students were examined, revealing that, in general: (1) telecourse students received better final grades than independent study students; (2) 40.1% of the telecourse students withdrew or failed, compared to 61.3% of the independent study group; (3) the grade distribution for print-based courses approximated a bimodal distribution with 29.5% clustered around the high end of the distribution, 61.3% either failing or withdrawing, and only 8.8% receiving a C or D grade; and (4) the grade distribution for telecourse students showed a more even distribution; i.e., the numbers of A and F grades were exactly the same, while the percentages of B and C grades were not significantly different. (EJV)