There are many ways to allow students, faculty, and TAs to interact and communicate electronically with one another outside of class, at their own convenience. Below is a list of course communication tools that we support for use in Cornell classes.
If after reading the guides below, you have more questions about which mode of communication would work best for your particular situation, please send e-mail to ATC_support@cornell.edu. You may find additional useful information by clicking the links below.
Other electronic communication services offered at Cornell, but not supported by Faculty Support Services, include:
Web-based discussion boards
A discussion board is a great way to provide opportunities for interaction among students outside of the lecture or study sessions. Cornell's discussion boards are restricted to users with a Cornell NetID.
To add a discussion board to a course web site, link your existing web pages to the discussion board. Note: If you are using Blackboard for your course web site, it has a discussion board built in. You don't need to request another one.
How to use discussion boards
Download the Discussion Board Getting Started Guide (PDF) to learn how to manage a discussion board.
To request a discussion board for instructional use, please fill out the Request for Instructional Technology Services form and request the "Web-based Discussion Board" service, or send e-mail to atc_support@cornell.edu.
Wikis
A wiki is collection of web pages that can be used for either collaborative work or for delivery of documentation. “7 Things You Should Know About Wikis” from EDUCAUSE discusses wikis and their use in Education.
Cornell hosts an instance of Confluence, an enterprise wiki application. Confluence wikis are available to Faculty, Staff and Graduate students. Click here to request a wiki space. To arrange a consultation to discuss wikis, send e-mail to atc_support@cornell.edu.
Blogs
Blogs (short for “web log”) are personal online journals written in chronological order that can allow others to comment on entries. The EDUCAUSE publication “7 Things You Should Know About Blogs” contains information that is useful for instructors to know about using blogs in Education.
Cornell University Library (CUL) and Cornell Information Technologies (CIT) are co-sponsoring a blog pilot as a first step in developing a centrally-supported blog service. For more information about this pilot, visit the Teaching with Technology Newsletter.
E-mail discussion lists (mailing lists)
Students, TAs, and instructors can carry on e-mail discussions using a course mailing list. Every member of the list will receive a copy of every message sent to the list in their personal e-mail, and anyone on the list can post and reply to messages. Posting can be restricted to only members of the list, so that outsiders can't send unwanted messages. One person, usually a TA or an instructor, is designated as the list manager, and handles all subscriptions for the list.
To request an e-mail discussion list for your course, fill out the request form. For more information about administering and using lists, see the Computing at Cornell Electronic Mail page. Depending on the time of year, list creation may take a week or so. Please direct any questions about creating your list to listmgr@cornell.edu.
Newsgroups
A newsgroup allows class members to carry on discussions on a bulletin board. Discussions are recorded in their entirety for anyone at Cornell to read through at any time. This is an advantage of a newsgroup over a mailing list. However, students must actively check the newsgroup to participate, whereas with a mailing list, messages come to the students via e-mail automatically. Newsgroup discussions are carried on through software called a news reader. News readers are now built into many popular browsers, so newsgroups are now easier to access.
To learn more about newsgroups, or to request one for your course, please see Computing at Cornell's pages on newsgroups. Depending on the time of year, newsgroup creation may take a week or so.
Special mailboxes
A special mailbox for your course allows TAs and instructors to separate course-related e-mail from their personal e-mail, and allows multiple people to check the mailbox and respond to messages.
To learn more about special mailboxes, or to request one for your course, please see Computing at Cornell's pages on special mailboxes. Depending on the time of year, mailbox creation may take a week or so.
Any regular system maintenance and server restarts for any of our services will be scheduled weekdays between 5:00 am and 7:00 am. All users should be aware that a system may become unavailable during this maintenance time.
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