E-mail is my preferred form of professional communication. At work I rarely use my telephone and I even use e-mail to communicate with close colleagues I see face-to-face regularly. I like having a record of my communications so I can keep track of multiple ongoing discussions and so I can search for information at a later date. I really do like e-mail. But, there are aspects of this medium that can undermine communication.
Earlier this week I answered an e-mail question from an online student who had asked about the way I present the course assignments and due dates in our class. My e-mail response reiterated where assignments were posted and I indicated that I had consciously chosen not to post assignment descriptions and due dates on the course calendar ~ based on my experience teaching online. My student replied back that, "my years of online teaching had obviously not taught me anything since I was failing to take different student learning styles into account." Needless to say, I was quite upset with this reply.
I worked out this situation with my student by trading a few more e-mails and things are good between us now. But, this was a crisis in communication that was, I think, caused in great part by e-mail. My initial reply to my student was rather impersonal and while I was right, I failed to read between the lines to see her honest struggle with my course. Her reply to me was, I believe, nothing she would have ever said to my face! Had we had this conversation in person after an in-class course, we would have made much better progress toward a resolution we could both be happy with.
In my 3-year role as an online lead instructor, problems with e-mail communication (and to a lesser extent, posts on discussion topics) were at the heart of many of the conflicts between students and instructors.
A mantra I use regularly in my online classes is, "Send me e-mail with any questions or concerns." I try to encourage early and ongoing communication with my students. I endeavor to give my students the benefit of the doubt when their e-mails use a tone I don't like (though I do point this out to my students). I try to not to say things in e-mails that I would not say if the student were sitting in my office.
I would love to know how you deal with these issues? What specific tactics do you use to foster good e-mail communication with your students? Where have you went wrong and what did you learn?
I hope you will take the time to leave a comment to this post. You will need to register with my Weblog the first time you comment. I hope you will.
In Good Spirit,
Eric
Earlier this week I answered an e-mail question from an online student who had asked about the way I present the course assignments and due dates in our class. My e-mail response reiterated where assignments were posted and I indicated that I had consciously chosen not to post assignment descriptions and due dates on the course calendar ~ based on my experience teaching online. My student replied back that, "my years of online teaching had obviously not taught me anything since I was failing to take different student learning styles into account." Needless to say, I was quite upset with this reply.
I worked out this situation with my student by trading a few more e-mails and things are good between us now. But, this was a crisis in communication that was, I think, caused in great part by e-mail. My initial reply to my student was rather impersonal and while I was right, I failed to read between the lines to see her honest struggle with my course. Her reply to me was, I believe, nothing she would have ever said to my face! Had we had this conversation in person after an in-class course, we would have made much better progress toward a resolution we could both be happy with.
In my 3-year role as an online lead instructor, problems with e-mail communication (and to a lesser extent, posts on discussion topics) were at the heart of many of the conflicts between students and instructors.
- Students complaining that instructors did not respond to e-mails.
- Students complaining that instructors were rude, dismissive or insulting in their e-mail communication.
- Instructors complaining that students were rude, insulting or unprofessional in their e-mail communication.
- Short e-mails answering student questions that fail to fully address the issue(s) or in other ways leave the student wanting more.
A mantra I use regularly in my online classes is, "Send me e-mail with any questions or concerns." I try to encourage early and ongoing communication with my students. I endeavor to give my students the benefit of the doubt when their e-mails use a tone I don't like (though I do point this out to my students). I try to not to say things in e-mails that I would not say if the student were sitting in my office.
I would love to know how you deal with these issues? What specific tactics do you use to foster good e-mail communication with your students? Where have you went wrong and what did you learn?
I hope you will take the time to leave a comment to this post. You will need to register with my Weblog the first time you comment. I hope you will.
In Good Spirit,
Eric
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