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This Week's Topic E-mail/Voice Mail Communication Tips Proactively using e-mail and voice mail helps you make better use of your time and keeps you in contact with your students. This week we will focus on tips and strategies for communicating effectively using these tools. This Week's Tips E-mail Communication–Your “Sig” File (Monday) Encourage your students to keep in touch by including your contact information (i.e., “signature”) at the end your e-mail messages (check the Download Depot for an example and directions). Your “sig” file should include your full name, academic institution, office address and telephone number, e-mail address, office hours and days, and Web site address.
E-mail Communication—Taking Your Time (Tuesday) Handle incoming e-mail messages according to your schedule. Try the following strategies to avoid spending all day on e-mail: Delete junk e-mail immediately after receiving it. Review and respond to e-mail only once or twice a day. Use the “flagging” system in your e-mail software to prioritize your e-mail messages. Save a set of “standard” responses to common questions in your draft folder, then copy, paste, and customize each e-mail response as needed. E-mail Communication—Organization (Wednesday) Organize your e-mail messages into logical folders. Follow these tips to prevent losing valuable minutes (or hours!) fruitlessly searching through your inbox folder: In your e-mail software, set up separate subject folders for your e-mail messages. Move e-mail messages into the appropriate folders right after reading them. Periodically clean out your folders by either archiving or deleting e-mails. Voice Mail—Efficiency Tips (Thursday) Encourage your callers to leave a message allowing you to address their needs without playing phone tag. On your answering machine or voice mail, record a message including your name, your office telephone number (to avoid wrong numbers), your office days and hours, the request “Please leave a detailed message,” and the best time and day to reach you. E-mail Communication—E-mail Notification Lists (Friday) Use e-mail to communicate with your class as a whole. Below are a few tips and protocols to remember when sending e-mail to your students: To send one e-mail to all of your students at once, set up a class e-mail list with your e-mail software. Prevent showing your students’ e-mail addresses to everyone on the list by using blind copy (bcc). To receive a receipt as each student opens your e-mail, select the return receipt option. |
