Connecting With Students
If you are a university teacher these days, you are likely to find yourself connecting with students not just during a course but before and after it. This has become much more common in the past ten years, first with e-mail and now, additionally, with social and professional networking. How does one manage this upsurge of communication and all these “contacts”?
Before a course, you are likely to receive enquiries about the content of the course, the assessment methods used, as well as your grading range. Some students like to fathom the likelihood of their scoring high with you well in advance; some will explain that they are, for example, pre-med students in need of high grades – as if you’re supposed to promise these before you know them. While explaining the syllabus in advance is fine, giving promises is completely inappropriate. Others will simply ask you to raise capacity in your full section, so that they can register, even though they don’t know you and they still have years to graduate. Their persistence is usually unjustified and is not always flattering. Rather than feeling flattered one may rightly wonder whether these students have been told one is an “easy” teacher.
Technology facilitates interaction during a course as well though it can be abused at times. Some of the enquiries one receives are completely redundant, such as questions about assignment deadlines and presentation dates. These are usually posted on the course website – and often in more than one location. Still, one finds oneself answering one such question after another on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis. Other enquires revolve around “why did I get this grade” when the posted scoring rubrics or checklists clearly indicate the required criteria – and these have already been explained in class. While it is commendable for a teacher to be responsive to student enquiries, some of them are frankly a waste of a teacher’s time, and I wouldn’t blame you if you were to ignore the redundant ones though I haven’t had the nerve to be so mean yet.
After a course there may also be questions of “why did I get this average” when simple calculations would explain it – or comments such as “I didn’t know we had to submit a reflection at the end” when it is clearly indicated on the schedule and elsewhere. On the other hand, if you are a member of a professional network, such as Linkedin, you may receive requests to connect with students there. I don’t find it inappropriate to accept such requests from former students, and actually consider it wiser to add them as contacts there (where one can follow their career progress) rather than as “friends” on Facebook, which can get a little too informal at times. This is of course a personal choice for a teacher though I’ll have to confess that one of the few students whose friend requests I did accept on Facebook graduated this year with the highest average in the history of AUB, and this wouldn’t have come into the light if it hadn’t been for Facebook. What a double-edged sword!
Posted by May Mikati on 10 August 2011, 11:49 PM
If you are a university teacher these days, you are likely to find yourself connecting with students not just during a course but before and after it. This has become much more common in the past ten years, first with e-mail and now, additionally, with social and professional networking. How does one manage this upsurge of communication and all these “contacts”?
Before a course, you are likely to receive enquiries about the content of the course, the assessment methods used, as well as your grading range. Some students like to fathom the likelihood of their scoring high with you well in advance; some will explain that they are, for example, pre-med students in need of high grades – as if you’re supposed to promise these before you know them. While explaining the syllabus in advance is fine, giving promises is completely inappropriate. Others will simply ask you to raise capacity in your full section, so that they can register, even though they don’t know you and they still have years to graduate. Their persistence is usually unjustified and is not always flattering. Rather than feeling flattered one may rightly wonder whether these students have been told one is an “easy” teacher.
Technology facilitates interaction during a course as well though it can be abused at times. Some of the enquiries one receives are completely redundant, such as questions about assignment deadlines and presentation dates. These are usually posted on the course website – and often in more than one location. Still, one finds oneself answering one such question after another on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis. Other enquires revolve around “why did I get this grade” when the posted scoring rubrics or checklists clearly indicate the required criteria – and these have already been explained in class. While it is commendable for a teacher to be responsive to student enquiries, some of them are frankly a waste of a teacher’s time, and I wouldn’t blame you if you were to ignore the redundant ones though I haven’t had the nerve to be so mean yet.
After a course there may also be questions of “why did I get this average” when simple calculations would explain it – or comments such as “I didn’t know we had to submit a reflection at the end” when it is clearly indicated on the schedule and elsewhere. On the other hand, if you are a member of a professional network, such as Linkedin, you may receive requests to connect with students there. I don’t find it inappropriate to accept such requests from former students, and actually consider it wiser to add them as contacts there (where one can follow their career progress) rather than as “friends” on Facebook, which can get a little too informal at times. This is of course a personal choice for a teacher though I’ll have to confess that one of the few students whose friend requests I did accept on Facebook graduated this year with the highest average in the history of AUB, and this wouldn’t have come into the light if it hadn’t been for Facebook. What a double-edged sword!
Posted by May Mikati on 10 August 2011, 11:49 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment