SIVACRACY.NET

Siva,

I realize that this might be perceived as an obnoxious email in the same way, but maybe I'll see some good comments from you and Ann. I send a lot of email to my professors, particularly my advisor, as a graduate student in an interdisciplinary program in the social sciences. I do this because I perceive that people think that it's intrusive to ask for personal appointments or use the phone. I think I've only had one professor at this university so far who has held scheduled office hours (which feels very strange because at my undergrad there was a rule that people HAD to), which means that it frequently takes two weeks or more to schedule an appointment/get an answer from a professor in person. I had always felt that email was LESS rude than going to see a professor because they can choose when to respond to you, so it takes up less of their time. Am I wrong? As an internet researcher, I'm fairly sure my tone is appropriate and professional. I've had a lot of serious problems with lack of support for my work since entering graduate school. Could this be contributing? Should I be communicating some other way?

thanks for your thoughts,
museumfreak

Siva says:

"I feel free to ignore the silly or rude requests."

This is an obvious approach that addresses the - "But many say it has made them too accessible, erasing boundaries that traditionally kept students at a healthy distance." portion of the article.

In addition to all of this, not only would I suggest that teachers use email to supplement the means of communication with students, but also use virtual classrooms (i.e. Course Management Systems - e.g. Moodle) so that questions relevant to the class as a whole can be discussed outside of real-time constraints. And of course, I stress the word 'supplement'. There is no complete replacement for the beauty of face-to-face communication.

I have always felt that e-mailing professors was the best way to get answers to quick questions. If I had a more involved situation I use office hours for me to go into details with that professor. Professors keep office hours, and make appointments with their students outside of office hours for that reason. Then again, I also write more formal e-mails to anyone who is in a position of authority.

I occasionally teach a course that is primarily online, and I'm involved when the course even when I'm not one of the the instructors of record. We have somewhat different expectations in communication for the course, since we are online and the focus of the course is information in cyberspace. Even if we weren't we'd likely answer every piece of email that is sent to us, rude or not. There are rude emails, and there are inappropriate discussions in the chat rooms we use for the course. We make it a point to try to teach the students about what might be considered appropriate in a given circumstance. We also hold real and virtual office hours and have IM support throughout the week, covered by the instructors and our TAs.

We also keep all correspondance, in case we are quoted out of context or an issue related to the course occurs. That has occurred. In those cases, we rely on our records to show the context to the appropriate persons who has the authority to see those records.

Excuse the typos, please. I'm still half asleep. :P
Our communications information is here:
http://echo.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312/contact/index.php

Our communications policies are covered in the orientation here:
http://echo.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312/syllabus/10.php

Through surveys, we've found that many students find us more accessible than the instructors in their face to face courses.

A situation involving the very subject of appropriateness has just come up with the people teaching this semester. I'll post more if I get a chance.

I get a lot of e-mails from students. Sometimes they want to share things such as "on topic" articles, which is great, other times they have subject matter questions, which is also fine. I am available in my office a great deal but I actually prefer e-mail, because I think the process of formulating a written question helps students clarify their thinking (and in so doing they often answer their own questions!) plus a written response from me leaves a record that can be helpful. When students ask questions that indicate they have not done the reading, or at a minimum not done it carefully, I will often preference a reply with something like "as page 48 of the text indicates..." and the students probably prefer this sort of nudge by e-mail rather than face to face.

Some students e-mail me about adversity inb their person lives. I try to be vaguely sympathetic without getting involved; as appropriate I direct them elsewhere for specific assistance.

The only e-mails that annoy me are those that ask me what the reading assignment is or whether the final exam will be open book - questions students can easily answer by consulting the syllabus and/or a classmate, or by simply paying closer attention.

Just another whine to add to the long list from some professors. When I taught, I gave my class a long list of expectations in the syllabus. They knew that they had to go to the campus study skills center if they were having problems talking notes well, or were not good at test-taking. They knew that they would need a doctor's-note-plus-phone-call or a family-member's-obituary-notice-plus-phone-call for a missed test (not a single student claimed a dead relative or illness). They knew they would have to go to the counseling center if they were having any psych/emotional issues. They knew not to ask for extra credit. They knew I would accept any assignment at any time, with a reasonable penalty for lateness. I knew some would skip the day before and/or the day after spring break, so they knew not to ask for a walk but I let them know exactly how much it might hurt them grade-wise, and I let it go at that. As my fellow grad students whined about all these teaching problems with their undergrads, I was glad I had let my students know what was expected. The syllabus nipped all of this in the bud. Now that we have the internet, I would just add a few comments about email communication and be done with it.