Creating Boundaries
What are your "rules" for emailing for your students?
Dale,
Sounds like your 24-48 hour rule is working for you. We totally understand emergency may occur too. Thanks!
Hello Dr Crews
I have found that the best "rule" is to stay within my universities policy such as 24-48 hours. I am polite, friendly, and professional.
Brigitte Powell
I think the most effective form of communication is the live classroom, and I encourage students to attend live whenever possible - and if not, then to make sure to watch the recorded archives slowly and carefully.
Beyond that, email is the second-best form of communication, and I encourage students to email me with any question or concern they have. I also encourage them to email me a brief summary of the archived session (that way, they are engaged in paying attention even when they're not there live).
I encourage students to avoid from sending me emails simply to say "I turned in my assignment," because I assure them that I check for new assignments every day. That way, my inbox will not be overloaded with unnecessary emails and I can pay attention to student questions and concerns.
I email, text and also have "course messaging" to use. Generally, if a student sends me a message by one of these means, I respond in kind. The weekly low grade comments are sent via email for one school and via "notes" for another school. Both work fine.
I very seldom call, I have found that students usually don't want calls, they want to control when and what they send to me and when they read responses. They want me to fit their schedule as much as possible. Phone calls also do not give each of us time to consider and react in the best way.
But I also have Google Phone set up, and sometimes students call me that way, and I respond in kind.
Robert,
Just curious. Do you hear back from the advisor when you copy them one-mails regarding performance? My success with that is limited. Most of the time the advisor does not respond back to me. Now with that said, they may contact the student, but if so, I usually don't know about it.
Dr. Crews,
I respond to all students within 24 hours, or 48 on the weekends. I also make it clear to students what my rule is, so they know that they will be hearing from me. I also let them know that if it is an emergency, they can call me for a quicker response, but I make it clear that it should be for emergency only. This does not include my office hours in which they can call anytime they want. I have been doing this a long time, and it works well. Rarely will a student call me outside of my office hours, as they know that I will respond to their e-mail.
Stephanie,
Being clear in your communication is an excellent start. Then, we have to keep it up. Thanks!
Michelle,
The 24 hour rule is quite common. I even tell my students that I will respond within 24 hours if their question is posted on the FAQ Discussion Board Sunday through Thursday. That way they do not expect immediate responses over the weekend.
One of my rules is to try and respond well within 24 hours. As I teach at different online institutions I noticed that this is an expectation and I can now understand why. Students often choose online education because they have a "whole other life" going on. This helps me realize that their time may be limited as well.
In contrast I have also found that I have to scale back quick response times for some. In my experiences there are a few students that expect me to drop everything and respond to their questions. When this occurs, I reiterate the general response time.
I also have a personal rule to always open and close with a greeting. Even if my e-mail is brief, it helps avoid the appearance of rudeness.
Lindsay,
Interesting. I use it and I have over 200 students in my class and you're right about 1/4 sign up. But, I think it's worth it to those students do I continue to use it. Thanks for your input.
George,
We do have to keep that consistent communication going with the students. Thanks for your input.
I email students all the time. I think that emailing is important as it gives an outline and an action plan and puts things into perspective. I also like to email just so I can have documentation that I covered something in regards to the specific student. One must also take time to speak with students via phone to cover any other challenges from students.
Kimberley,
Good rule of thumb. The 24-48 hour rule is very efficient and helpful to students. Thank you.
I've used Remind 101 in the past, but stopped doing so. It was a great resource -- for those who signed up. Unfortunately, even with constant promotion I never had more than 1/4 of my class sign up, so it wound up being just another thing I had to do on top of everything else.
I wish we were allowed to select just one mode of communication (ie, I will ONLY email/call/text students) but alas, the powers that be won't permit that. It would certainly assist in creating boundaries and allow instructors to have a bit more distance between work and home life.
-Lindsay
I email students, clearly, in response to any questions they might have. I also reach out via email if a student has missed an assignment deadline or received a low grade on an assignment. I do have certain times I email or respond to students (within 24 hours, longer on the weekends) so I don't set the expectation that I will email back as soon as I get an email (so as not to set students up to expect this kind of immediacy). Any kind of email that questions a grade or a student is unclear on an assignment, I usually call the student and then send a follow up email.
Stephanie
My rules for emailing include a 24 hour response time for messages sent during the week and a 48 hour response time on the weekends. I send out a lot of reminder emails as group messages that require very little response from my students. With my announcements,scaffolding tools and reminders embedded in the course, I usually only receive emails when students are requesting extensions or have an emergency.
Thank you
Gloria,
Sounds like you do a lot of communicating! That's something online instructors need to do. Thanks for your input.
Dr. Crews,
It is my practice to e-mail students at the beginning of the course. I send out weekly emails as reminders. When assignments are incomplete from a previous week, I communicate via email and the telephone.
Samantha,
I teach over 200 students in one class. We use the discussion board FAQ section instead of emails. I get very few emails from students, but we use the discussion board a lot so that all students can benefit from the questions and answers. Thanks for your input.
