Enhancing Connections Between Students and Instructors: African-American Students' Use of Computer-Mediated Communication

Abstract

The move to incorporate computer-mediated communication (CMC) into the business curriculum is driven by job market demands for information technol ogy skills. Business instructors may discover, however, a pedagogical bonus: more communication with their students outside the classroom. We studied the perceptions and practices of 138 students in business communications at one of the historically black colleges and universities who used e-mail and the Internet to complete assignments. The results indicate that CMC encouraged students to become active learners and to contact instructors. Anecdotal evi dence suggests that e-mail helps African-American students to see instructors as facilitators, though it does not necessarily become a rhetorical "safe house," where students engage in vernacular discourse. Nevertheless, e-mail fosters an informal rhetorical relationship that rewards openness and collaboration among students and instructors within the formal academic setting.