Electronic Communities in Writing Instruction:
A Beginners Guide

Intro

Teachers

Students

History

Texts

Listservs or Web Bulletin Boards?

Depending on your campus, you may have several options available to you for electronic forums. Each of your options will create a different type of online environment.

In E-Genres: Form, Content, and Medium in Class Electronic Discussions (1999), Bruce Leland noted that class communications on listservs tend to be more casual (sometimes lending them to higher frequencies of phatic communication), while web bulletin boards such as WebCT elicited more formal discussions. Leland offers the familiarity the students have with email versus the newness and strangeness of the bulletin boards as an explanation of the differences he observes. Another factor mentioned is that messages from a class listserv get mixed in with other more personal and social messages in the students' inboxes, whereas they have to actively go to the public space of the bulletin board.

The advantage to listservs is that most students arrive already familiar with email, so it requires much less in-class introduction and training. The advantage of most web bulletin boards is that they keep messages organized or "threaded" (replies are indented under original posts), and no one's email inbox gets filled up. Additionally, bulletin boards typically offer additional features (such as, in the case of WebCT, showing only unread messages, having a "search" option, and being able to create multiple forums).

No matter which type of forum you choose, the parameters you establish for your classes can counter balance the influences of the medium. Your electronic communities can be strongly influenced by types of requirements and degree of structure you provide.