On Fri, 26 May 1995 21:16:22 -0400 you said:
>As a test project this past semester we initiated a program where
>students registered in our Distance Ed. Classes would subscribe
>to their class listserv list.  These students were located all
>over Canada.
>
>This project was such a success that they (Distance Ed. Dept.)
>would like to keep the program going.  I'm wondering if this is
>being done at other sites and if so, I have some questions of
>the listserv maintainers/postmasters at these sites.
>
>So far we have 11 listserv lists.  I'm not a lazy person, but I work
>two jobs already and now I find that I have to edit the headers of
>all these lists once classes are over.  The numbers are sure to rise
>by the Fall semester.  My questions.
>
>1. What would be the most appropriate header to change that would
>   require the least amount of effort to enable?  I could set
>   "Confidential= Yes" to all of them I suppose...but we would still
>   get local folks sub'ing out of curiosity.  Certainly the "owner="
>   header would have to be set to 'none' if it is a supported option.
>(I seem to recall that it may not be supported for version 1.8b)
 
I am also heavily involved in supporting the use of Listserv for instructional
use. Listserv is a wonderful tool for implementing virtual classrooms.
 
I set all of the lists I create to confidential=yes too and so far, no one
outside the 30 or so classes which used Listserv here last semester had a
problem with people from outside the class subscribing and I suspect that
most of the instructors here who use Listserv wouldn't care anyway.
 
I also set the owner's keyword to the address of the instructor. This let's
the instructor know whenever someone subscribers to his/her list, assuming
you also set the "notify" keyword to yes.
 
>2. Is there an alternative that someone else has come up with to
>   replacing the headers? (Like a script of some kind? :-))  I
>   supose I could put these lists all in their own directory and
>   run a script to replace the "Subscription=" to "closed".
 
At the end of each semester, I delete the lists from the Listserver here
unless an instructor tells me to keep his/her list alive. With most of the
class lists here, I just name them after the course number and section. That
way, when I need to reopen a list for a later semester, I just change the
owner's name and address and send back the list header to our Listserver. I
also have to reopen the corresponding account for the list. The entire process
takes about 5 minutes and I usually get started with this 2 weeks before the
start of a semester.
 
>Making the Distance Ed Dept. responsible isn't an option as this
>program was set up with the agreement that the postmaster would
>enable/disable class lists for this program.  Umm...*blush*  this
>was my suggestion since I wanted the program to fly..and it would
>have gone nowhere otherwise.  So, now I'm looking for an easy way
>to manage it.
 
Setting  up lists  takes hardly  any time  at all.  What me,  and some  of my
colleagues, end up doing,  is consuming the lion's share of  our time in this
effort, not in setting up lists, but in educating instructors how to use them
effectively as a learning tool. One of  m colleagues is starting to develop a
faculty workshop on how to use Listserv, and other computer technologies, for
class instruction plus we even have  faculty in some departments who are gung
ho enough  to volunteer to  teach their  colleagues about Listserv  lists. In
fact, what I do, is find graduate  teaching assistants and faculty who are up
for tenure  to help  train their colleagues  in their  respective departments
about this stuff and it works quite well.
 
>My stats: Listserv, version 1.8b running on IRIX version 5.2 (Mmm..
>that means it is a unix machine.)
 
Stan Horwitz, Consultant    | Bitnet           | Internet
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