Abstract
Information technology is transforming the landscape of almost every sphere of mankind's daily life and education is no different. Modern trends in education in general and higher education in particular are pointing towards increased used of Information Technology and Communication tools (ITC) on a global scale. Online education, virtual education and blended learning have been some of the concepts which have entrenched themselves in academic environments all over the world in 21st century. IT is quickly becoming the cornerstone of imparting good education at all levels with provision of effective and purpose oriented tools and technologies. However a lot of questions have been raised over efficacy and efficiency of these emerging IT applications in imparting education for scientific and applied sciences domains. In this paper, the data collected over the last three years at Saudi Electronic University for Programming related courses in blended learning environment has been presented and analyzed with special emphasis on performance of IT tools being deployed. The results show the efficacy and efficiency improvements gained in delivering technical and practical education such as programming knowledge when taught with the help of IT technologies.