Mailgroups (2)

Introduction

There are many ways of using communication technologies to support learning. One approach that has been extensively used is an electronic mailgroup. This is a system in which by sending an e-mail to a common address all participants who form the group are sent the message. It is therefore possible to use the system for many purposes:

There are no particular limits to the size of a mailgroup and examples exist of groups of less than 20 participants and ones of many hundreds of members. The initial applications were mainly to support groups of researchers and scholars who were separated by distance but shared areas of interest. Initially they were specialist discussion forums but have now developed to cover a vast range of topics and groups. There are many related to Further and Higher Education but they continue to spread across all sectors.

Mailgroups provide both visible and invisible discussion forums. In that you are aware of e-mails sent to the group but since each e-mail reveals the address of the sender it is perfectly possible to respond directly to the sender. Anecdotal evidence suggests that a great deal of all mailgroup traffic is invisible in that it is directly to the sender rather than to the group. The other phenomenon is lurking or simply reading the messages and never or rarely sending a contribution. It is difficult to estimate the volume of lurking but estimates suggest that for each contributor there are three times as many readers or lurkers. This suggests that like an iceberg a lot is hidden beneath the surface in both lurking and direct e-mails.

In June 2000 NIACE relaunched an existing mailgroup to provide a forum for participants in the DfEE’s Adult and Community Laptops Initiative. Membership was open to all participants and anyone else interested in the topic. The mailgroup was therefore an open forum aimed at the entire community but mainly intended for people working in some form of Adult Learning. The mailgroup is called Making-IT-Accessible.

Joining and leaving the group

The normal approach to joining any mailgroup is to send an e-mail to an address with a standard message. The mailgroup software then automatically enrols you as a member.

For Making-IT-Accessible participants had to e-mail Listcaster@niace.org.uk  with the message subscribe Making-IT-Accessible. Once they were enrolled they communicated with the mailgroup by sending e-mails to

Making-IT-Accessible@niace.org.uk. 

Some people found it difficult to enrol through a variety of reasons and they were enrolled directly onto the server. The problems are difficult to classify but were probably due to a lack of experience with e-mail communication or some small error with the enrolling message.

Moderation

All mailgroups have a moderator. This is not a role that exists outside of electronic communication but has features similar to facilitating a workshop, refereeing a sports event and managing a resource. It involves:

Styles of moderation vary but a great deal of the communication is by direct e-mail contacts so that it is hidden from the whole group. However, the moderator is also an individual member of the group so has a role simply as a participant.

An analysis of the moderator’s contribution in Making-IT-Accessible showed that during the mailgroup’s first month a quarter of all messages came from the moderator. These were mainly attempts to start discussions or answer queries in relation to the group. This high level of participation rapidly declined in subsequent months and was in the range of 1:10 to 1:15 of all messages. A majority of these messages took the form of providing information that the moderator judged would be interesting.

Good manners

It is important at the start of a mailgroup to agree some general rules to ensure that individuals are not offended or the group abused. Over time these are developed and enhanced and the group moderator needs to play a part in arbitrating when members ask for changes. Typical areas to consider include:

Membership

The Making-IT-Accessible mailgroup had 278 e-mail addresses on 31 January 2000. However, the volume of messages does not closely relate to overall number of participants, with 17% of all messages being sent in the first month when membership was less than 100. Many group members have expressed satisfaction with the discussions and messages while admitting they rarely contribute. Anecdotal evidence from other groups tends to agree with this generalisation that

many people gain from the group by simply reading other people’s contributions. In January 2000, 45 different members contributed to the mailgroup. This is probably a higher proportion than in many other forums.

Nature of contribution

The individual contributions took many forms including:

1. Individual questions
2. Answers and suggestions to resolve problems
3. Comments on issues which ranged from a single sentence to detailed response covering several pages.
4. Many contributors offered information or advertisements
5. Contributions to discussions

Volume of Mail

The pattern of Making-IT-Accessible group mail tended to be influenced by factors such as public holidays so that the month with the smallest number of e-mails was December while January was the highest.

Wide ranges of topics were discussed but information and communication technology issues were frequent areas of debate. This is not surprising given the nature of the mailgroup. However, this covered specific technical issues, good books, ICT qualifications, curriculum matters and personal views. Other topics included funding of adult education, outreach, many practical issues and messages seeking assistance.

Appendix contains an update of this information for 2000 and 2001.

Benefits

The benefits of participating in a group have been reported (Rojo and Ragsdale 1997) as:

Other potential benefits include:

Individual Experience

The number of e-mails a member receives each day varies from none to many. If you have been away for a day or two you will find a lot of messages to read which may not fit into the work pressures you face. Since each participant is free to read and respond to messages when it is convenient messages can arrive in strange sequences. There can be long gaps in discussions and responses can move in several directions simultaneously. This can be confusing but most people find it a refreshing approach and have few problems following the discussion.

Conclusion

Mailgroups are a very useful way of sharing experience and providing mutual support.

References

Rojo, A and Ragsdale, R.G (1997), A process perspective on participation in Scholarly Electronic Forums, Science Communication, 18(4), p320-341

Appendix - Update of Volume and Types of Mail for 2000 and 2001

Comparison between the same month in different years on: volume of mail received during the months and nature of the e-mails.

Definition of each category :

Communication - New people joining the mail group and introducing themselves, people who have worked on a project, usually write about their work, and some people tend to write about their area of work.

Information - This area consists of people mailing useful web sites to one another, usually regarding a specific discussion topic or report. E-mails informing people about forthcoming events, i.e. Laptop events, availability etc.

Other - People advertising job opportunities, recruitment taking place, etc

Questions / Answers - Any questions that people have asked, which usually attracts on average 3 answers to one question

April 00 - 12% of e-mails sent during 2000 April 01 - 11% of e-mails sent during 2001

May 00 - 8% of e-mails sent during 2000 May 01 - 3% of e-mails sent during 2001

August 00 - 1% of e-mails sent during 2000 Aug 01 - 7% of e-mails sent during 2001

Sept 00 - 5% of e-mails sent during 2000

Nov 00 - 5% of e-mails sent during 2000

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