<p>While I understand her frustration with being inundated with students bombarding her with emailed questions which could have been answered by looking up the syllabus, online documentation, class lecture, etc...not sure this approach is necessarily the best.</p>
<p>Several Profs I had in college dealt with this issue by making it clear on the syllabus and first day lecture that how one communicates via email is counted as part of the class participation grade along with office hour/phone interactions...whether positively or negatively. </p>
<p>Consequently, most students end up assessing whether the Prof needs to be bothered with certain questions and if so, to prepare for the interaction ahead of time or risk getting docked for "negative class participation".</p>
<p>I like it. It discourages the passive-aggressive communication of email and forces kids to walk up to her after class or pick up the phone and call.</p>
<p>It may seem intimidating at first, but in practice the negative class participation aspect only came into force if students were personally attacking the Prof/other students, asking/emailing questions which were already answered several times in the lecture/during the term or on the syllabus/online documentation, or calling them up for a non-emergency matter in the middle of a Prof’s holiday dinner with his/her own family*.</p>
<p>In short…one REALLY had to screw up badly to get to that point. </p>
<ul>
<li>There were a few classmates I know of who pulled this stunt to their own detriment.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>I wish I could get away with this, as do the other faculty I know. Over the past 10 years, we have watched students become more and more passive consumers, with little initiative or problem-solving ability. Questions clearly covered by the syllabus become the subject of an email which begins, all too often, “Hey Prof.” I am dedicated to my students’ success, but I do expect them to take the initiative to look for the answer themselves, and then check with me. </p>
<p>A colleague received feedback from a student that, “if the professor had told me what the (substantive answer was on an independent research project), I would have done better.” True, but then the whole point of getting an education would be missed. </p>
<p>" little initiative or problem-solving ability. " You see this portrayed in many many posts by HS students here on CC. Samples like:</p>
<p>What’s the mailing address of X college’s admissions office?
What do I do to mail this hard copy letter of recommendation?
Can any tell me if Prof Jones at campus X of college Y has an online syllabus?
I want to decline College Z’s admission. They didn’t give me a link in their notice or a card in the letter. What do I do?</p>
<p>I wonder how this is different when someone is a manager to 200+ people. Would the manager expect the staff to email him/her with non-consequential questions? I didn’t find that to be the case. I also found email communication allowed me to think before I gave an answer. Now, there is a maturity difference between 20 something vs 30 or 40 something, so employees maybe better at making judgmental on when to email their senior manager. But when/how to communicate with a person in authority is a learning process, I think while in college is a good time to learn, which means instead of telling students “no” about email, the professor could help to guide the students.</p>
<p>Over the years we’ve heard from students on CC that they have some difficult issues in class, they wanted to know how to communicate with their professor. A lot of us have said to write the professor or dean an email first then follow up with a meeting. The reason is one can often explain things better when writing it in email, and it also gives the reader a chance to think it through carefully before replying.</p>
<p>I know both of my kids have communicated with their professors via email, and almost all of their professors have responded promptly. Their Uni has 12K+ students.</p>
<p>I try to have students write and speak formally as much as possible because their world doesn’t offer regular opportunities to practice these behaviors. </p>
<p>I teach freshmen, and I think that learning when and what is appropriate to email about, and how, is important. So I"ll have a discusison about how if you ask something that’s on the syllabus and/or on Canvas, you’ll get a boilerplate “check-the-syllabus/Canvas” answer. But I do want to be open to communication. And most of my teaching time in the past was as an adjunct with little or no office availability. But now even with that available, and being on campus more as a full-timer, I know my students are often commuters and may have complicated schedules, so I do want to be available for important questions. I can see this might work for some profs, but I like to keep the lines of communication open, and as I said above, I think that’s part of teaching new freshmen.</p>
<p>Strange. When I started my current job in 1992, very few students used email. They got increasingly savvy over the years, and it saved all of us a lot of hassle, especially students who lived off campus, had jobs, families, and so on. I would guess that peaked around 2004. Since then, students are increasingly email-illiterate. They might know how to Tumlbr, but email is a mystery. I WISH they would email me more often so they can avoid getting behind and so on.</p>
<p>In the last few years, I have started to use email to communicate with my lawyers and bankers (my accountant is still a hold out). I can be more clear on my questions when it is written down, and I don’t have to call them continuously. They can read my emails when they have time and can compose more precise/informative response. I think I have saved a lot of time and money by using emails.</p>
<p>I am so happy that my son’s psychiatrist allows me to communicate with him by email. We’ve developed an excellent relationship over the last three years, and I try to keep the correspondence as brief as possible. On the subject line, I will write “URGENT!” or “Update FYI - not urgent.” I think he’s an unusual doctor, though - even when he goes on vacation, he will tell my son and me that it’s fine for us to contact him if we need to.</p>
<p>One critical part of that in the offices I’ve worked in is most managers have very little patience for employees who would email him/her non-consequential questions. </p>
<p>To the managers, such behaviors demonstrate the employee concerned is probably too lazy, lacking in intelligence/common sense, lacking critical/analytical thinking, and/or initiative. It also demonstrates the employee has very little consideration for others’ time. </p>
<p>Traits which creates a negative impression in the manager’s eyes and consequently, factor into a negative quarterly performance review. Fresh college grads tend to get one or at most, two warnings/discussions about this before the negative assessments start factoring into whether they need to be terminated before the probation period ends. </p>
<p>While we, as adults, are probably astute enough to use email appropriately in the context of medical/professional relationships, most students are not. Imagine getting emails the equivalent of " what is the deadline for filing federal income taxes." An accountant would get very tired of receiving such emails. Yet that is what we, as faculty, get on a regular basis. </p>
<p>Kids also need to learn to document requests and responses in writing. I don’t care what the professor’s email policy is; students should be taught that certain things should be confirmed in writing, like extensions, or a professor’s agreement to write a recommendation letter, or clarifications regarding ambiguities in the syllabus, etc.</p>
<p>The professor should also recognize that there are times when email will be the most efficient and only viable communication option, as when the student is seriously ill. </p>