Using a mailing list in your class

• As a way of organizing class discussions. Mailing lists enable you to summarize important points after a class discussion. These summaries are useful not only to maintain an overall focus in your course, but also to help students remember the important points of a given discussion.
  
  
• As a way of continuing an ongoing discussion. Because class time is never enough, mailing lists enable you, or any other member of the class, to continue to develop ideas that may have began during class time but needed to be more thoroughly explored. Mailing lists are also perceived by some students as a less threatening environment than classroom discussions; using mailing list to encourage participation could consequently encourage participation by more students.
  
  
• As an "electronic writing group." Mailing lists can also be used as open forums for students to ask for help with their writing from their instructors and classmates alike. Students can post ideas, working or full drafts of essays, paragraphs or sentences that they wish to receive feedback on, so that other members of the class can respond.
  
  
• As a guide for critical reading. When approaching a complex text, it is useful to post reading guidelines on a mailing list before the class discussion takes place. You can also invite early responses from students so that they come to class with a more solid foundation for the discussion.
  
  
• As a way to carry out peer reviews. Mailing lists can be used for peer review assignments. You may want to ask one or two students at the time to post a paper on the mailing list and ask the rest of the class to contribute with their comments. Sharing not only drafts, but also peer review comments, will give students a better sense of how to draft and revise their own work, as it becomes obvious to them that the considerations for writing are as varied as they are complex.

Mailing list problems

• Avoid too many mandatory postings at any given time. If you ask your students to post essays, make sure that only one or two essays/assignments are posted at any given time else students (and instructors) will be overwhelmed by the large amount of information and will likely ignore the postings rather than responding to them directly.
  
  
• Make sure that there is adequate technical support for your students. You may want to take the time to learn the technology adequately and ensure that you can assist, or know where to refer, your students.

Setting up a mailing list at Stanford

• To set up a mailing list, send an email to help@lists.stanford.edu (you need not fill in the subject or text fields). You will get an automatic reply providing you with general information about mailing lists as well as a form that you must fill out and send back to list-request@lists.stanford.edu (You can just cut and paste the questions into a new email, answer the questions and mark an x between the square brackets that apply). For more information on setting up a mailing list go to lists.stanford.edu.