Ah. The Amish way.
It implies that the student has some sort of insider knowledge about the true nature of God.
And when you email him “Could we meet at 2:00 to discuss topic.” and he replies “Sure, 2:00 is fine.” do you reply “Ok, I’ll be there at 2:00”? That’s redundant, and pretty much exactly what the rest of your post is complaining about.
Sometimes.
No it isn’t.
Example. . .names of things XXX’ed out just for propriety.
Well, first of all, what he’s asking me if I know is essentially his job. And he’s spent a measly 2 hours on it before asking me about it.
Second of all, I toss him a little example just to shut him up, and all of a sudden he takes that as the signal for “paths of communication are open” (which is something I expect these profs are also worried about).
Next thing I know, it’s three more emails in half an hour with follow-up questions that indicate on thing: he put in no work on what I sent him. Even typing up “I’m not sure. You’re going to have look at ‘such and such’ or ask so and so’” has taken up more time than I ever should have had to spend on it.
I don’t get the thing about the person of lesser power always emailing back. If a student e-mails me to ask something simple, like when an exam is or when something is due, and I reply with the information, I don’t want another email that conveys no useful information but that I nonetheless have to read and sort into the appropriate folder. (I save all correspondence with students. CYA.)
If it’s a really big deal, then a reply from the student saying “Thanks, I really appreciate this,” is cool. For little things, if they sign their original request “Thanks, Joe Student” that’s all the gratitude I need. No additional groveling required.
Hell, if they capitalize, punctuate and spell their original message like a literate grown-up, I’ll send them a fruit basket.
My email address is given in the course syllabus and website. Frankly, I don’t recall ever receiving an inappropriate question from a student, nor the need to ignore an email. Mostly I provide quick answers to the usual questions … “Is xxxx on the test? Can we use any notes on the test? What’s my grade? I missed class because of xxxx; what did you cover?” No big deal. Occasionally, I remind them that it is not possible for me reproduce an entire lecture in an email. I think that email’s great for increasing communications between student and instructor. Sometimes, it does surprise me how open some students are in describing their life crises and the impact on their course performance. In those cases, I point them to the available options for avoiding an undesirable grade by following university rules for withdrawing from the class or university. At all times, I tell them “no special favors” from me, although I have granted extra leeway for some students with very extenuating circumstances (done via email).
What the hell?
A few weeks ago I had a question about homework due for differential equations. My answer for a particular problem was close but not exactly correct (according to the back of the book), so I emailed my professor with my question, what I had tried, and why I thought my answer reasonable.
He responded in detail, telling me where I’d gone wrong. Neither in the email nor in later face-to-face dealings did he indicate that I might be a lazy, self-absorbed little twerp. He did not express regret that he gave out his email, allowing me to ask a question that may not have been appropriate in class and couldn’t have been asked otherwise - as I have other classes during his office hours.
(And he’s ooollld. If anyone has a right to complain about email, it’d be someone who could be Alan Turing’s grandad.)
So. Where did I and my teacher go wrong?
I’m not a professor, i’m a grad student. I’m currently working as a TA for one seminar class (25 students), and i’m also teaching my own class (also 25 students). Because i’m the only person teaching that class i am, in effect, the “professor” (i.e., the person responsible for the class).
I encourage students to email me. I like email, because i’m usually at or near my computer, and email is a form of communication that allows me to stay on top of things, but also to do so at my own pace. I pride myself on replying to student emails in a timely fashion, often within an hour or so, and definitely by the end of the day or (if the email arrives late at night) early the next day.
That said, i do get annoyed by some of the emails i receive, and by the lack of basic courtesy in some of them. I realize that the apparent lack of courtesy is often unintentional on the part of the student, but it can grate nonetheless.
One annoying thing is when students end their emails with something like “Please get back to me as soon as possible.” Sure, there’s a “please” on the beginning, but that still annoys the hell out of me. Especially in the cases when the student’s problem is of their own making. “Look, your lack of preparation does not constitute my emergency” is what i want to say to them.
Another thing that i find annoying is when students email me asking about important concepts covered in class. The classes i lead are lecture and discussion sections, and the purpose of the dicussion is to talk about the readings and the concepts so that they understand them. I always leave time in class for questions, and it’s rather annoying to be asked to cover something that could have been discussed in class and from which all the other students might have benfitted.
Not only that, but i also set aside office hours each week when students can come and talk to me one-on-one about anything they want. I’m not going to spend an hour typing out a long, involved answer to a question when i could explain the concept in a ten minute conversation. Especially when the student in question shows no inclination to actually come and see me during office hours.
Furthermore, if i did type out an explanation, it would be me doing all the work. Part of the teaching process is making sure that students actually understand what you’re telling them. When i explain a difficult concept in class, i like to ask questions to make sure that the students understand, and i also ask them straight out if they have understood what we’ve been talking about. I do the same when i speak to students one-on-one, getting them to explain things to me in their own words so i can be sure they’re not just repreating what i say without understanding it. Just sending out an email with “the answer” doesn’t allow me to do any of those things, and it allows the student to simply file the answer away without thinking about it or engaging with the ideas.
I have a friend who teaches at the University at Texas, Austin. She teaches some big survey courses, which at UT can mean up to 500 people in a class. She has 8-10 TAs when she teaches these classes, and she still often gets over 100 emails a day from students, many of which are about stuff that they should be finding out for themselves. Hell, she’s had people email her asking where the campus bookstore is, or what room their section meets.
Sure, it might seem no problem to answer little stuff like this, but even if each response only takes 60 seconds, when you multiply a one minute response by 100 emails, she could spend a couple of hours a day dealing with stuff that has nothing to do with actual learning.