I know you had thought about having the pods some how meet in class and I think that would have beneficial. I scheduled a specific original meeting that no one attended. I was also available right outside the classroom and had no one introduce themselves to me. I had so little contact with any of my pod members and I think a face to face greet would have facilitated greater contact. Meeting in the pods would have also allowed students to meet other students and perhaps exchange emails/numbers. Maybe create a greater sense of community in such a large class.
I’m not sure how to encourage more students to take advantage of the study tables. Perhaps, meeting in the pods would help that. For the first study session/table, you could offer a bonus point to anyone that attends one that is hosted by their pod leader.
I think the pod email rate was good. We don’t want to overwhelm the students but we do want them to know we are here for them and thinking about them, etc. I don’t really know how to improve on the email communications without increasing the work for the TA. I thought about sending out a tricky question or a quiz with a candy bar prize or something for a winner. Just sending out some review questions in general might ellicit some questions from students.