Tom Creed, 1997, Extending the Classroom Walls Electronically

Some cautions:

• Electronic communication should meet a need.
• Electronic communication should be driven by effective pedagogy.
• Start with what you already use and know well.
• Electronic communication has a steep learning curve, and can be frustrating for others.
• Electronic communication can be a time sink.
• Much of the context of electronic communication is lost.
• Not everything is communicated well textually.

A few tips:

• The better you and your students understand the technology, the more useful it will be for you.
• Know how to get help.
• Choose the most widely accessible technology.

Alexander Romiszowski and Johan de Hass, 1989, Computer-Mediated Communication for Instruction

To set a good climate for electronic communication:

• Start with a welcome message.
• Reinforce students' early attempts at participation.
• Reference students' responses in your comments.
• Model expected behavior.

To be a good facilitator:

• Keep the main discussion on track by providing leading questions.
• If the discussion starts getting off track, refocus.
• If a distracting topic appears that is generating interest, use what means you can to keep this separately labeled.
• Suggest that students look deeper into topics when applicable.
• Occasionally, summarize where the discussion has been.

Tom Rocklin, 1997, Using an E-mail List to Support Student Learning

Listservers can be used effectively in a class in which students solve problems for homework or to study for tests. Instructors can encourage students who get stuck on a problem to ask for help on the list. Then, their classmates can help them, and others ("lurkers") might benefit as well. It is probably a good idea for you to jump in and tactfully correct erroneous "help."

Susan Powers and Karen Dalt, 1996, Expanding Class Discussion beyond the Classroom Walls

To help students understand proper netiquette, provide them with examples of appropriate and inappropriate electronic communications. (These authors' suggestions for good habits for e-mail and newsgroup messages are incorporated into Appendix G.)

David Brooks, 1997, Web-teaching

• Students using electronic communication in a course that also meets in person should still be encouraged to come for personal office visits.
• Instructors might indicate their habits and preferences with respect to electronic communication, such as "I generally do not read electronic mail at nights or over weekends." Students will then have more realistic expectations for responses.

Karin Sandell, Robert Stewart, and Candace Stewart, 1997, Computer-mediated Communication in the Classroom

• Most instructors initially overestimate the technical competence of their students with respect to computing.
• Some level of reluctance on the part of the students often emerges.
• Students need incentives or bonuses for participation in electronic discussion, particularly when their classes meet in person.

Recommendations:

• Provide learning-friendly instructions; simplify and then simplify some more. Repeat instructions often.
• Focus on the learning environment rather than the teaching environment or the technology itself.
• Deliberately make use of the computer in assignments.

Rik Scarce, 1996, Using Electronic Mail Discussion Groups to Enhance Students' Critical Thinking Skills

When students seem to be posting messages to the instructor or without reference to others on the list, it helps to make a part of each student's grade contingent upon responding to other group members' observations.

Chelley Vician and Susan Brown, 1994, Computer-based Communication and the Classroom

• Be willing to adjust your time deadlines for student responses. The system might be unreliable or some technical or access problem might prevent students from meeting the deadline.
• Open up and maintain clear channels of communication with your area's technical support staff in advance of the course since you might need their help in a hurry later.
• Practice using the technology tools that you will be asking your students to use.
• Develop training guides or sessions for those things that are not available from your computing center.
• Allow in-class time for discussion of frustrations and problems with the system.
• Keep an archive of the list so that you can reward participation accurately.

Jack Meacham, 1994, Discussions by E-mail

To help avoid the problem of having students reply to messages, not realizing that the discussion had changed directions, a solution is to put a time limit on responses. For example, don't reply to a message that is over a week old, read all the messages before replying and avoid responding when the topic has changed.

When mail bounces back to the list because there is a problem with an address or a student's disk is full, it is best to promptly remove those addresses from the list and notify the student by another means.