Handling Email

• Let students know what times you can read and respond to email. What times are you free, how late do you stay up, etc.
• Use rules and seperate folders to seperate possibly important email from instructors/students from spam.
• Forward your email to an account which you can access anywhere, so that you can read it wherever you are.
• Make sure your students know to send you mail from their GT accounts so that it doesn't get mistaken for spam.
• Let students know what times you can read and respond to email. What times are you free, how late do you stay up, etc.
• Respond to emails that are answerable in under 2 minutes immediately.
• You don't have to write a novel. Be to the point, but don't bypass courteousness, grammar and punctuation.
• Use tools like email scripts and mailing groups when you need to contact lots of students at once. But be careful not to send sensitive information to the wrong people. Always test your scripts first!
• Set an example for your students by using [CS [1-4][0-9]{3}] (such as [CS 1301]) in the subject line. Also write good subjects so your students know what the email is about.
• Use the Bcc field for listing students' emails. Everybody doesn't need to see a list of an email's recipients.
• Don't email out code answers. Offer help regarding areas of confusion and point students towards resources that can help them gain deeper understanding of the material. In the long run, this is better than sending out answers.
• If you get hostile emails, don't respond with hostility. Try to defray the situation, but use good judgment. Alert the course instructor if necessary.