Written communication has advantages. The very act of formalising a problem to be able to document it often prompts the student to find their own solution. Written communication has a further advantage in the natural record of the communication content that becomes available. The disadvantage of traditional written communication has been the delivery time for written messages. The Internet and electronic communications can add considerable value to traditional student support mechanisms.
Emails offer informal brief communication with almost instantaneous delivery.
The mean time to reply may be another matter. Such messages and the replies can be filed and kept on line or rendered to hard copy. Modern email packages can be set up to apply rules to the routing and processing of such messages. Files can be sent as attachments retaining their specialised formatting or the text can be incorporated without special formatting within the body of the email message. Edith Cowan University's Virtual campus which supports both external and internal students offers student bulletin boards and 'chat' sessions where staff student and student student contact can be facilitated.