Mailing lists are preferred to newsgroups as teaching tools for undergraduate biology classes

Effective communication between instructors and students is a challenge regardless of the instructor-to-student ratio. Instructors of large classes, in particular, have resorted to various forms of Internet communication, such as mailing lists and newsgroups, to supplement class time and office hours. Mailing lists are closed discussions among subscribers who receive and send messages via an electronic mail program (e.g., Eudora). Newsgroups are public discussions to which anyone can gain access and respond via a newsreader program (e.g., Nuntius). Newsgroup messages are posted to a bulletin board that the subscriber must visit to read. Mailing lists and newsgroups share many advantages (convenience, greater anonymity, and speed of communication) and disadvantages (computer access required, impersonal nature, junk mail, and lack of graphics in older programs). However, surveys of both faculty and students in biology indicate that mailing lists are generally favored over newsgroups. Reasons given for mailing list popularity included greater familiarity with the E-mail format and ease of access.