[R-sig-teaching] purpose of list

[Graham Smith]

Mark

>   Actually, I love to communicate with the students by email, but I find it
> a nightmare when they email me any code!  Sometimes a 1-minute verbal
> explanation will take several paragraphs to clarify by email.

I agree, but

a) I only lecture part time, (I do ecological consultancy the other
part). I have a "very" flexible office hours, which often don't fit in
with student hand in dates, so I feel I need to give email support
b) I also run a part time Masters in Ecological Impact Assessment,
which relies on teaching being concentrated into five long weekends.
So email is the only way I can give ongoing support for the statistics
(or any of the other) parts of the course.

However, I agree with you about email support being a mixed blessing
and I often find that an hour will have vanished as I try and work out
the best way of explaining something in writing, which face to face
would have been relatively simple. But it is still a lot easier with a
bit of code in front of me instead of vague descriptions about what
menu steps they followed,  and what boxes they may or may not have
ticked along the way.  Sending me the data set and the code is, on
balance, a lot easier.

Graham