Enhancing Telecommunication in Teacher Education

AbstractThe School of Education at California State University—Los Angeles set up an electronic bulletin board service (BBS) in 1989. This article presents the results of a study on the use of this instructional resource by students and faculty. By providing modem access to instructors and students, use of the board was facilitated: the daily average number of calls increased by 3.25 each month. Course-related messages represented 55% of all messages and 43% were student messages to faculty, thus verifying the effectiveness of the BBS as an instructional medium. The BBS appears to foster faculty and student interaction outside of the classroom.