Welcome to E-mail Study Groups

At Texas State University, we teach a course entitled Freshman Seminar (GS1100). It is a one credit hour course required of all first semester freshmen. Sections are taught by faculty from every college within the university. Jeffrey Gordon, a professor in the Philosophy Department and director of Freshman Seminar, has produced the course text, The University in Your Life, published by Brown & Benchmark in 1996.

The foundation of GS1100 is that to have a meaningful university education, students must practice thoughtfulness about what it means to be a college student. It is not a study skills course, nor is it an introduction to university programs and services. Rather, it aims to provoke some reflection on these questions:

How does university study connect with establishing one's identity?
How does university study connect with navigating the challenges of the twenty-first century?
How does university study connect with living a fulfilled and humane life ?

Most new college students have had little practice in the reflective discussion that is so important to the success of many college courses. For the last three years, Dr. David Caverly and Dr. Cindy Peterson have taught GS1100 supported by e-mail study discussion groups, believing that through such groups students might learn how to discuss readings with their peers and also be better able to participate in the following class discussion.

Students are given e-mail accounts at the beginning of the course, taught how to use our university's e-mail system including sending, replying, and forwarding a message. Then, they are assigned to a journal group of three to four students drawn from two classes. Members of the journal groups are known only by their first name.

The professors send all students a prompt related to the readings for the week. Students are required to write three times for each prompt. First, they send their response to the prompt to their journal group members and to their professor. Second, students are required then to return to their e-mail to write a reaction to what their group members have said. Third, students are required to provide critical feedback on the level of the discussion. The final exam questions, student responses and final grades were also disseminated over email.

Journal groups work more effectively than journal pairs. If one member of a journal group didn't respond the other students still can discuss the prompt, unlike a journal pair.
Students seem to be better prepared for class discussion of the readings.
Through the course, the journal writings tend to become longer, more elaborated, and more frequent.
The anonymity of the group allows students to express themselves more freely and to students from varied backgrounds, with whom they might not normally engage in conversation.
In most groups a sense of identity develops. Students express support when a member mentions a problem such as becoming ill or being stressed by exams.
Students report that they feel more like they belong to the university.
Many continue to use their email accounts and correspond with classmates and the professors after the class ended.

Send comments to Webmaster:

Webmaster: David C. Caverly, Ph.D.; DCØ2@TxState.edu
November, 1996