Fordham IT: ITAC Blog

Students need boundaries, and so do you. This is as true online as it is in the classroom. At the same time, students need feedback and a stable, responsive learning environment. All too often, though, email presents an obstacle to creating both boundaries and responsiveness.  As users of email, we often get into the habit of checking our email whenever we happen to be online, and answering whatever message happen to be in the inbox when we log in. For teachers interacting with students online, however, that behavior can be detrimental to both the learning environment and our peace of mind.

In the first place, answering email intermittently creates false expectations and frustrations. Sometimes students get a response almost instantaneously, but sometimes they don’t. When they don’t, they feel ignored. This quickly leads to multiple emails from the same student asking the same questions over and over, prefaced with phrases like “I’m not sure if my last message went through,” and “I think there may be something wrong with the system.” Nine times out of ten, the problem isn’t with the system, it is with the student’s unrealistic expectations. In such a situation, the instructor is put immediately on the defensive, having to reassure the student, and perhaps even justify his/her time away from the keyboard.

Instead of creating those unrealistic expectations, set some firm ground rules at the beginning of the semester. Instead of saying things like “email me any time,” or “I’m up late,” give the students some online “office hours” that you will check your inbox, and set a response window. For instance, you could say that you check your email most days between 10:00am and 6:00pm, and that you will try to respond to all emails within 24 hours (this is the currently accepted best practice rule for returning emails). If you don’t answer emails on weekends, or are going to be out of town or otherwise AFK during your normal “office hours,” let your students know that in advance.

Most importantly, once you set the ground rules, stick to them. Even if you are online late at night, don’t answer your student emails. If you feel like catching up on work after hours, save your replies as drafts, and send them during your next response window. That way, your students won’t come to expect responses at 2:00am Wednesday or 9:00pm Sunday night, and when you go out of town for vacation or a conference you won’t come back to panicked, frustrated students and a hundred emails wondering why you haven’t responded to questions.