Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning - Advantages and Disadvantages in Using Email for Teaching and Learning

General advantages and disadvantages in using email to communicate with students
Advantages	Disadvantages
Staff and students can communicate outside of office hours, at anytime convenient to them Faster than an ordinary mail; messages travel almost instantaneously Staff and/or students can be in the safety and comfort of their own homes for after classes office hours Working students, part-time students and students with family responsibilities will be able to 'attend' classes without much inconvenience Staff can communicate to students relatively easily without losing valuable face-to-face contact time Cheaper and less intrusive than a telephone call, particularly for a large amount of information	Not all students have easy access to computers and have email accounts; computer laboratories might not be open after office hours Students may need training to communicate effectively via email before using email in learning 'Email overload' for staff Hardware/software incompatibility may result in garbled messages The recipient may be unaware of an urgent message's arrival and quick answers may not be forthcoming Recipient unable to interpret nuances which are easy to communicate when face-to-face
Bulk messages via email
Advantages	Disadvantages
Staff no longer have to arrange for a time and place for all students to gather before giving messages Misunderstandings due to missed or misheard words eliminated Saves photocopy time and paper Students will not miss messages if they are absent on the day the information was given	Email addresses of all students may be unavailable to staff Students might read an important announcement too late; students must be trained to check emails regularly Many students with a similar query might seek individual attention
Remote teaching/learning
Advantages	Disadvantages
Physical distances between staff and students no longer matter Saves time, money and effort needed to travel to campus Time zone difference that might be a problem for other forms of communication does not matter	Must have access to computers and functioning modems Breakdown in power supply or telephone service would disrupt communication
Using email for submission of assignments
Advantages	Disadvantages
Students don't have to go to the department to submit their assignment Assignment is submitted directly to the teacher and less likely to get 'lost' in the system Receipt of assignment can be acknowledged quickly For some students using email and attaching an assignment will be an IT learning experience Teacher can type comments and mark directly onto document and return by email without delay	Attached assignments may contain viruses Transmission problems may cause extra work for the lecturer if students have to be contacted and asked to resend assignments Teacher may need to print assignments, which may be time-consuming and may increase stationery costs for the department
Peer Learning through email
Advantages	Disadvantages
Assignments can be sent to other students for peer review before submitting the final version to the teacher Students can be encouraged to ask questions of each other about things they don't understand before contacting the teacher Students working on group projects can communicate without having to meet Part-time students or those living far from campus can 'talk' to other students without going to the coffee shop Students may have the option of addressing messages to the whole class or to individuals	Students may reinforce misunderstandings about a particular concept, theory or assignment instruction Breaches of 'netiquette' may occur in the form of 'putdowns' of other students, insensitive comments or curt replies Some students may feel anxious about putting their views in writing to the whole class and may be 'list lurkers' rather than participants