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Newsgroups are a good way to get information out to the entire class. Newsgroups are an effective way to keep all information for a course in one place for the entire quarter. Announcements, HW changes/hints, etc. can be posted to the newsgroup by the TA. Students can use the newsgroup to post questions. For those of you who have never used a newsgroup, I would highly recommend learning now. To read a newsgroup you can use programs like rn, trn or tin. Trn and tin are probably the best programs to use. Once you get a leland account just type "rn", "trn" or "tin" and it begins the news reading program. From here you can go to different newsgroups to read or post messages. The newsgroup for the class you are TAing probably exists already and should be named "su.class.eeXXX." If the newsgroup does not exist, you will have to request that one be created. Go to the following web page: http://courses.stanford.edu. From here you will be able to request that a newsgroup be created for your class.
While newsgroups are a powerful way to get information out to the entire class, I would recommend using an email list as the primary means of communication with the class. Students seem to check their email very often and don't have to think about making a special trip to the newsgroups to get information.
The University will maintain an email list for you, you don't have to enter every email address by hand into your own system. There is a list server provided by the University. To get more information go to http://mailman.stanford.edu. After that you should have all of the information you need for starting and maintaining a new list.
I would recommend sending important messages to both places. While this is not necessary, it will allow students to get important messages right away through email and allow them to go back and look at previous announcements in the newsgroup.
Sending to both places is relatively simple. If you are posting a message to a newsgroup, simply CC: the email list. If you are emailing, you can CC: su.class.EEXXX@news. Either way will allow you to send to both places simultaneously.
The directory for your EE class will most likely be in the following location: /afs/ir/class/eeXXX, and it will appear to the outside world as http://www.stanford.edu/class/eeXXX. If it isn't already ready for you to use, you will need to ask your professor to give you permission on the directory, visit http://courses.stanford.edu for more information. This web site will also help if the directory doesn't exist, the disk quota is too small, etc. Web pages can also be set up using the EE software EEclass or CCNet course management software described next.
The EEClass or Course Communication Network (CCNet) is the preferred choice for web software in the EE department. Go to http://eeclass.stanford.edu for all of the information.
If you would like to use the CCNet software to manage your course web site, please send the following information to gradta@ee.stanford.edu:
New features and upgrades are regularly added to the system. Continuous help and support is available throughout the whole year.
Main Features:
CCNet is extremely user friendly. The server is secure and uses SSL with 128bit encryption with 1024 bit exchange. We take automatic backups of all the files everyday. We also keep a 30-day history of all the important databases.
An alternative to CCNet is the university Web software system Coursework, which is described at http://www.stanford.edu/group/ats/coursework. The CCNet system has proved to be the more popular within the School of Engineering and it physically resides on School computing facilities.
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