College Faculty Use and Perceptions of Electronic Mail to Communicate with Students

Abstract

In spite of the potential of e-mail to enhance faculty–student interaction, there is a limited amount of actual research on instructional uses of e-mail, and even less research on e-mail exchange between faculty and students. The purpose of the present study was to examine faculty-initiated e-mail with students, their perceptions of students’ motives for using e-mail, and their views of the consequences of faculty–student e-mail. A survey was distributed to faculty at two institutions, a small private university and a mid-sized public university. Results revealed that faculty in general are receiving more than twice as many e-mail messages as they initiate and that female faculty report receiving more student e-mail than male faculty. Faculty motives for initiating e-mail appear to be utilitarian in nature such as to make course announcements. Faculty reported that students used e-mail to make appointments and to clarify and ask questions about course material but that a primary motive was to offer excuses such as for late work. In general, faculty perceive the use of e-mail as both beneficial and as a liability in the educational context. Finally, institutional differences were found for faculty perceptions of student's motives for using e-mail and for the consequences of e-mail.

Keywords:

• Faculty-student communication
• Faculty use of e-mail
• Out-of-class communication

Notes

Robert L. Duran and Lynne Kelly are Professors of Communication at University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT 06117, USA. James A. Keaten is a Professor of Communication at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 80639, USA.

An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Instructional Practices Interest Group, Eastern Communication Association, Washington, DC, April 25, 2003.

An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Instructional Practices Interest Group, Eastern Communication Association, Washington, DC, April 25, 2003.

The following items from the Martin et al. (1999) 30-item Motives for Communicating with Instructor measure were reworded to reflect faculty perceptions of students’ motives and were included in the 15-item measure used in the present study: “to ask questions about the material,” “to explain why work is late,” “to clarify the material,” “to challenge a grade,” “to get assistance on the assignments/exams,” “to learn how I can improve in the class,” “to explain absences,” and “to get academic advice.”

The positivity or negativity of an excerpt was apparent from the context provided by the complete written response. Most faculty provided a clear indication of whether they saw e-mail as positive or negative or both by their choice of adjectives or short phrases such as “I hate it” or “E-mail is great!” Excerpts were edited to reflect sub-themes succinctly, thus, qualifying phrases and sentences establishing context were deleted.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James A. Keaten

Robert L. Duran and Lynne Kelly are Professors of Communication at University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT 06117, USA. James A. Keaten is a Professor of Communication at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 80639, USA. An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Instructional Practices Interest Group, Eastern Communication Association, Washington, DC, April 25, 2003.