Instructional faculty and staff at degree-granting institutions reported on the volume of e-mail use and how they used course-specific websites in fall 1998. Both full- and part-time instructional faculty and staff reported spending an average of 2.7 hours per week responding to students’ e-mail communications. Instructional faculty and staff who used course-specific websites were more likely to use these websites to post general class information and links to other information than for any of the other purposes examined (i.e., posting homework, practice exams/exercises, or exams/exam results).

There was an association between type of institution and telecommunications technology use. Among full-time instructional faculty and staff who used e-mail to communicate with students in fall 1998, those at 4-year doctoral institutions reported that an average of 39 percent of their students e-mailed them, compared with 29 percent of students at 4-year nondoctoral institutions and 22 percent of students at 2-year institutions. Similarly, among part-time instructional faculty and staff who used e-mail, those at 2-year institutions reported that an average of 23 percent of their students e-mailed them, compared with 40 percent of students at 4-year doctoral institutions and 34 percent of students at 4-year nondoctoral institutions.

At 4-year doctoral institutions, 85 percent of full-time and 84 percent of part-time instructional faculty used course-specific websites for the purpose of posting general class information, compared with 75 percent of both full- and part-time faculty at 2-year institutions.