Improving communication in industrial engineering courses by implementing a "zero email" policy and optimizing the use of a course management system

Numerous research studies have shown that college students prefer face-to-face, verbal communication for their college courses, rather than social communication (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, apps, text messages); despite the fact that college students communicate more via text messages than any other communication option (e.g., face-to-face, email, text). This paper describes a study in which the instructor did not email the students, but instead communicated information face-to-face during class and kept the learning management system up-to-date in terms of calendar deadlines, assignments, grades, and course notes. The results of this study show that students were very satisfied with the instructor-student communication methods used in the industrial engineering classroom. The results show that the majority of students accessed the learning management system 2 to 3 times a week, daily, or multiple times in a day. The students reported logging into the learning management system most commonly to check grades, print lecture notes, and check the course calendar for upcoming course assessments and topics to be covered on assessments.