Although access to the Internet was widespread for postsecondary instructional faculty and staff in fall 1998, the use of e-mail to communicate with students in classes was relatively lower both for full-time faculty (69 percent) and for part-time faculty (46 percent). The use of course-specific websites for classes was also lower—40 percent for full-time faculty and 34 percent for part-time faculty. Overall, full-time faculty were more likely than their part-time counterparts to use e-mail and course-specific websites. The use of e-mail and course-specific websites also varied by type of institution: overall, faculty at 4-year doctoral institutions were more likely than those at 4-year nondoctoral and 2-year institutions to use e-mail to communicate with students and were also more likely to use course-specific websites.

Instructional faculty and staff’s use of e-mail to communicate with students in their classes was related to the level of students taught as well as to the age and principal field of teaching of faculty and staff. For example, as the age of full- and part-time instructional faculty and staff increased, their use of e-mail decreased. On average, faculty who taught both undergraduate and graduate students were more likely to use e-mail to communicate with students in their classes (81 percent of full-time and 65 percent of part-time faculty), compared with those who taught only undergraduates (66 percent of full-time and 44 percent of part-time faculty). Principal field of teaching also made a difference. For example, 82 percent of full-time and 65 percent of part-time engineering/computer science faculty used e-mail to communicate with students, while about one-half of full-time and 30 percent of part-time health sciences faculty used e-mail to communicate with students.