These are guidelines for Student Participation in Email Tutorial Groups.
There are separate guidelines for Tutors

Welcome to the wonderful world of email tutorial groups! We hope that you find your email discussion group(s) helpful and relevant. As a member of a group, you are an important part of the tutorial process because tutorials are not just about listening to the wisdom of a tutor, they are also about:

• participating in a collegial learning process with other students, helping and supporting one another; and
• making the most of the learning opportunities offered by working to understand and clearly articulate your needs in the process (i.e. asking questions, making comments, thinking critically about you what you read, and discerning what information/comments are most appropriate for your work).

The Aims of Tutorial Groups and the Role of the Tutor

Tutorial groups involve the interaction of students with both their peers and a tutor. The aims of such an interactive process include:

1. encouraging students towards their study goals (self-identified and program-identified);
2. helping students to hone their communication skills in relation to study content (are they saying what they really think they are saying?);
3. highlighting different aspects of and different approaches to the study material by the contribution of varying perspectives within the group;
4. clarifying understandings of concepts and ideas related to the study content;
5. developing the critical discernment skills of students in a discussion environment.

All members of a tutorial group are involved in this interaction and contribute to these aims.

In addition, the role of the tutor is specifically aimed at helping students to address the study assessment criteria to the best of their ability within the requirements of the program. In this respect, the tutor is responsible for making critical judgements about the way in which assessment criteria are being or are likely to be addressed based on the email tutorial group interactions, and communicating those judgements in a helpful, supportive way.

Subscribing to Your Email List

When you enrol in a unit, you are advised the name of your email group (or list). The name of your group is also usually the unit code, e.g. pbg428. To subscribe to your email list, send a message like this:

to the following address:

Remember to replace "unitcode" with the code for your unit in lower case letters, e.g. tbg405, and "your@email.address" with your email address in the message that you send.

If you have any problems subscribing, then send a message to Anita Monro.

Email discussion groups are called lists because the whole list of people subscribed to the group will receive all messages sent to the email list (see "Making Contributions" below).

Don't Wait!

Don't wait to subscribe to your list! Even if you haven't opened the Study Guide make sure you are subscribed to your list. Reading the interaction on the list will encourage you to become involved in your studies and help you to feel confident about making your own contributions when you are ready.

Welcome Message for Your Email List

When you subscribe to the list, you will receive a welcome message which gives you a lengthy but not comprehensive guide to participating in the email list. You should keep this message for future reference. If you do delete the message from your email folders and want to check what the welcome message for your list says, send a message like this:

to the following address:

Remember to replace "unitcode" with the code of your unit in lower case letters, e.g. sbg410, in the message that you send.

If you have any problems with this request or would like to ask for changes to the welcome message for your list, then send a message to Anita Monro at the following address:
anitam@uccentre.ucaqld.com.au

Introduce Yourself

The welcome message invites you to introduce yourself to the rest of the group as your first contribution to the group. Introducing yourself to the group helps your tutor and other students to meet you, and understand a bit about the context from which you make your contributions.

When you introduce yourself, it is a good idea to say a little bit about who you are, what your interests are, why you are enrolled in the unit and what you hope to achieve from your studies. In the welcome message, there is a list of questions to which you might like to respond when you introduce yourself to the group.

Contributing to the Email List

To make a contribution to the email list, send your message to the following address:

Remember to replace "unitcode" with the code of your unit in lower case letters, e.g. hbg411, in the address that you use.

It is best if email contributions are short. Unless otherwise specified in the study materials, students' contributions are asked to be between 5 and 15 lines long. This is a good length for emails. It is better to send a number of short emails for different topics than one long email on a whole range of topics. Short specific emails help group members to keep track of discussion "threads" (see "Keeping Track of Threads" below), and discern which emails might be most helpful to them at any particular time.

Why Email?

Coolamon has chosen email as the most appropriate facility for its postgraduate tutorial groups because:

• Email does not require that all participants in a tutorial are available at the same time. Messages can be sent and received in each individual's own time. Every subscriber to an email list receives every message sent to that list whenever they are able to access their email.
• Email users can minimise their costs by working "offline" and only connecting to their email provider in order to send and receive messages. Users only pay for a very short connection period.
• Coolamon' s policy of flexible enrolment (students enrol any time between February and November, and have 20 weeks to complete a unit) means that different students will be at different stages of the unit at different times. Email lists with various discussion threads allow students to read and respond to topics that may be relevant to them, while leaving other message aside.
• Email lists with archives allow students to access previous discussions on topics which they are now covering.

No Attachments, No Text Formatting

It is very important that all participants in email lists allow this cost-effective, efficient tutorial process to work in its own most effective way.

File attachments to emails are strongly discouraged. Not all email users are able to access attachments. In addition, attachments only increase the time needed to upload (send) and download (receive) email through a service provider. Attachments also increase the danger of the spread of computer viruses in the email environment. Many of our students (and tutors) have limited financial and technological resources. Keeping things simple helps them and the whole tutorial process.

Similarly, do not send email formatted in anything other than plain text (also known as ASCII text) only. Do not use programs such as Word, or formats such as HTML code to write your email messages. If your emails are creating difficulties, you will normally receive feedback from other participants on the list, or the email tutorial group monitor (see "Monitoring Email Lists" below).

Note: You may submit your assignments via email to the Coolamon College emailbox (coolamon@uccentre.ucaqld.com.au) as attachments, but do not send attachments to the email tutorial group.

Your Contributions

You are encouraged to make a contribution to the email tutorial group approximately once a week during the period of your enrolment. Since you are enrolled in a unit for a period of 20 weeks, it would be normal for you to make about 12-15 contributions during your enrolment. This figure allows for breaks etc in your studies.

If the unit in which you are enrolled does not already specify the particular contributions that you should make to the group, your tutor may suggest some contributions that you can make. You may also like to try making the following contributions in order to receive feedback on your progress in your studies:

• Make a response to each of the lessons in the unit as you complete them. You may like to summarise your understanding of the key points of the lesson, or offer some critical and analytical comments in relation to your reading.
• Pick out specific exercises from the unit's Study Guide and give your responses to them in the group. These may be exercises that you particularly enjoy or ones that you find difficult perhaps.

Giving your tutor something to which s/he can respond will help him/her to discern whether you understand the content of the unit and to encourage you in developing your understanding.

Netiquette

Because email discussions are not face-to-face, it is sometimes easy to forget that there are real people on the other end of the computer links. There are certain accepted protocols for participating in email lists. These protocols are generally called "netiquette"-the etiquette of the internet. Some of the more common protocols that can help people not to feel too threatened in this "virtual" (i.e. not quite real) environment are listed below. As a participant in an email list, it is also part of your responsibility not to create an environment that other people may perceive as hostile.

• No "yelling", i.e. messages written in capital letters are interpreted as the email equivalent of yelling. Pragmatically, it is more difficult for people to read message in capital letters.
• No "flaming", i.e. be careful to avoid careless choices of words which may be interpreted as insults. When discussing issues about which you are passionate, it is easy to become careless with words and insensitive to others.
• Tones of voice are not communicated in plain text. If you are being ironic, sarcastic or using other "tones of voice" that really require face-to-face communication, you need to indicate this.
• There are a lot of codes used in email messages to indicate things such as tone of voice. One common example is the side-ways smiley face winking [;-)] to indicate an irony or witticism. You may encounter some of these as you participate in the email environment. It is not necessary that they be used or that you know them, but knowing that they are around can help you to interpret some communications.
• Clarity of communication is the key to good email discussions. Keep contributions as brief and as simple as possible.

Keeping Track of Threads

Because not all everyone enrols in a unit at the same time, there will often be a number of topics being discussed at once. In order to keep these topics separate, you are asked to always indicate the topic you are discussing in the subject heading of your email. In this way, different "threads" can be under discussion at the same time in the discussion group. "Thread" is the email jargon for discussion around a particular topic and only that topic.

One thread may lead into another thread as discussion moves along. When a thread changes, it is usual to indicate this in the subject line, e.g. "Re: XYZ issue (was ABC issue)".

You are not required to participate in all threads at all times. Some of the threads may refer to topics which you have not encountered yet as you work through the study materials, or which you have finished dealing with a while ago.

Establishing Limits

Email can take over your life if they let it. You only need to deal with messages that are relevant to you at any particular point in time. You can always keep copies of messages that you think might be helpful later, or access the list archives when necessary to see what other things may have been said on a topic (see "Archives" below).

You will need to be realistic about the amount of time you have available to deal with email messages. It is absolutely appropriate for you to deal only with messages related to the content of the unit, and to make responses only where you think responses are necessary. As in any tutorial process, there is an element of discernment necessary in relation to what discussion may be useful for you and what is not.

Archives

Your email list has archives of all previous messages. These archives are divided into the months in which messages were received. The names of the archive files reflect this division. The last 4 digits at the end of the archive filename indicates the year and the month of the archive, e.g. 9907. To get a full list of the archives available for your list, send a message like this:

to the following address:

Remember to replace "unitcode" with the code of your unit in lower case letters, e.g. pbg461, in the message that you send.

Once you have the list of archive files for your group, you can have them sent to you by sending a message like this:

Remember to replace "unitcode" with the code of your unit in lower case letters, e.g. pbg461, and "archivefilename" with the name of the archive file that you want, e.g. tbg405-archive.9906, in the message that you send. Don't forget to put the unit code before the name of the archive file. In many cases, this will mean that the unit code occurs twice in the request for an archive file: once on its own as the name of the list; and once at the beginning of the name of the archive file which you are requesting.

If you have any problems with accessing archives, then send a message to Anita Monro.

Monitoring of Tutorial Groups

All email tutorial groups are automatically monitored. Copies of all email messages go to the designated "list owner" which is currently anitam@uccentre.ucaqld.com.au Monitoring does not mean that all email messages for all groups are read in detail all the time.

Technical problems with email groups will normally be picked up quite quickly. However, if you do have any questions or concerns about any part of the process, don't hesitate to contact Anita Monro at the address: anitam@uccentre.ucaqld.com.au

From time to time, you may be asked to give feedback on your experience of the email tutorial process. Your feedback at any other time is also very welcome. It is such feedback that enables us to continue to improve our service to you and other students.

Some Final Hints and Reminders

All email messages to the list go to the address:
unitcode@coolamon.ucaqld.com.au
(with "unitcode" being replaced by the code of your unit in the address).

All "command" messages, e.g. requests for archives, go to the command address:
majordomo@coolamon.ucaqld.com.au

If you want to know about any further commands available to you, email the command address with the message:
help

Participating in email groups can be daunting. As far as possible Coolamon College tutors and staff will work to make this as helpful an experience as possible for you. As a member of an email list, you are also part of that process of creating a helpful "virtual" tutorial environment.

Everyone has to contribute to an email list for the first time at some stage. Your tutors , who may be learning about the email environment too, will understand how daunting making contributions can be.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is have a go!

As in any tutorial situation, to some extent, the process is up to you! It is a new process though, so you will find that you do have to feel your way for a bit until the specific characteristics of tutorials in an email environment become apparent.

If you have any questions, queries, comments, please contact Anita Monro.