Every time I go to conferences or open the Higher Education Chronicle, I see something about how students have unreasonable expectations for faculty responding to emails. And in pre-semester workshops, I keep hearing that "students these days expect an immediate response." Personally, I have not experienced this, but there are enough people talking about it that there must be some element of perceived truth to it.
Actually, my students have always been quite respectful of my time. If anything, I wish students would email me more frequently. I wonder what the difference between me and my students and other instructors and their students is... could it be the age of the students involved? I have some younger students, but by and large they are well into their 20s at the very youngest. It could also be the fact that I teach primarily graduate classes. Or maybe my responses are so lengthy that students are afraid to get me started!
What do you think? Do instructors have a responsibility to answer all emails immediately? What is an appropriate amount of time to allow to pass before re-emailing? How will you handle students who are attached to the Internet 12 hours/day and expect you to be "always on" and hyper-responsive to their messages?
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I think that an instructor should set standards at the beginning of the course and say in what amount of time he/she will respond to students' emails. For example, I have had instructors say they will respond to emails within 24 hours. This way students know what to expect and should not be suprised if it takes an instructor a day or two to respond.
ReplyDeleteFor re-emailing, I think that dependds on the reason the student is emailing and the urgency with which the student needs a response. For me, if the issue is urgent I wait three to four days, but I try to get help from other students first. I'm interested to see what other students do? Thanks, Louise
I think the instructor should post up guidelines on the syllabus and establish it from the start of class. The online board discussion help section also if very handy. I noticed that others instructors state 24 hours on a regular schoolday/business day. Weekends are within 24-48 hours.
ReplyDeleteAs the others have mentioned, I think that the instructor should set the guidelines at the beginning of the semester. I think that, especially in an online class, 24 hours for a response should be the standard during the week. Weekends should be more flexible. As an instructor, I would expect the same respect for my time that I will give to my students.
ReplyDeleteMaybe students do not email you as often because you are almost always available to chat online? I frequently see your name available to chat on gmail.com--and my gmail shows that you are available right now!
ReplyDeleteAs for instructor's responsibility to respond to email, I agree that guidelines should be set. Yet, with today's abilitities to respond to email via one's cell phone, the educator can chose to respond it now or later depending on the emergency posted on the message.