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://www.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/auth/class-dir.prl. 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 – in other words, 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 send an email to help@lists.stanford.edu. After that you should have all of the information you need for starting a new list.

Once the list is created, you will have your students subscribe to the list. To subscribe, one must send an email to majordomo@lists.stanford.edu. The subject line must be blank and the body of the message should read:

subscribe <listname>

Then to send an email to the list, send it to "<listname>"@lists.stanford.edu.

I would recommend sending important messages to both places. While this isn’t 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. If it isn’t already ready for you to use, you will need to ask your professor to give you permission on the directory, or contact courses@leland.stanford.edu to get the required permissions.

If the directory doesn’t exist for your class, or if you need to request quota you should also contact courses@leland.stanford.edu. They will most likely refer you to the following web page: http://www.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/auth/class-dir.prl. This will allow you to request new storage space, a new directory with the proper permissions, and a newsgroup. If you need to request that your class receives a certain amount of quota, send an email to courses@leland.stanford.edu and tell them which class you are a TA for. You may need to get something signed or approved by the professor.

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EEClass (EE Web Software)

EEClass is the preferred choice for web software in the EE Department. Go to here for all of the information.