Newsgroups are probably a bit of a novelty for most 1st year students as e-mail tends to be the service most use from their ISPs at home. As for teaching via newsgroups or using them as a teaching aid I would say that Strathclyde University has got a good it right.

In my opinion there are 3 lecturers in the CS department at Strathclyde who have provided excellent teaching resources through newsgroup postings and providing yet more support to help students further understand the coursework.

In my opinion they are Pete Barrie, Pat Prosser and some bloke who runs this website ;-)

I don't think newsgroups are a time constraint on students as to be honest most of the postings in newsgroups I have seen are irrelevant. If anything the way to improve the newsgroups is to have stricter implementations of rules so that the idiots who cause "noise" get banned and those who are actually wanting to commit to a worthwhile discussion are left to discuss and probably most importantly LEARN something.

After all isn't that what being a student is all about? No really, I hear it isn't just about drink and other dubious activities there is a whole but as yet these claims are unsubstantiated ;-)

G