In colleges, especially in this COVID-19 pandemic, communicating through email has become more important than ever for students. Changing styles of teaching adds to the usual questions students ask, especially since they cannot ask their questions in person after class or during face-to-face office hours.
The VOICE conducted a survey of faculty and students at MCCC to determine how they both feel about email communication this semester. 21 faculty members and 27 students responded.
The survey asked respondents to issues like: How long should professors and other faculty members take to respond to emails? Do students have unreasonable expectations about communication? How do most students feel about the communication during this pandemic?.
The overall finding of the surveys was that there was a lot of common ground, but of course a few complaints from both sides.
When students were asked questions about how many emails they send their teacher each day, 61.9% said they communicate with their professors every few days and 71.4% said their professors should take 48 hours to respond to their emails.
Of the 21 faculty members who were surveyed, 81% said they thought they should respond to student emails within 48 hours or less and that with occasional exceptions they meet that goal.
Students tended to agree. Of the 27 students surveyed, 78% percent said they thought faculty usually respond to them within a reasonable period of time of 48 hours or less.
One student said, “Everyone has a life outside of school and teaching, so I just think as long as the email gets responded to within 48 hours it’s fine.”
Some students are very very understanding. One said, “I actually try to send an email between 7 am to 5 pm. I know some professors log off right after 5 pm and emails tend to pile up which causes emails to be lost. If a student emails too late at night, the professor might not reply or might reply in the morning.”
Another understanding student is first-year Biology major Lawrence Boadi who says, “Sometimes I get a little irritated or at least anxious when I don’t get a reply but then I take into consideration how they have a lot of students to deal with as well as a lot of grading. So that helps me understand their point of view.”
Boadi has all remote classes so he could ask his questions during class if he wanted to. He also has labs so he can go to the school to ask his questions to his professors in person.
However, there have been cases for students within MCCC that have had issues with their professors responding 2-3 days later or never responding at all despite the number of emails they’ve sent.
First-year Engineering major Josh Herron, who has only online classes this semester, says of the time it takes him to email his professors, “I believe emailing them takes longer because I want to be able to finish assignments while I have the time. If I had the professor’s phone number, they might reply back as soon as possible.”
Other students voiced their complaints.
One student responded to the survey saying, “I have 4 classes and 2 of my professors respond either the same day or the next day. My other two professors very rarely answer the same day. They mostly take 2 or more days. Sometimes I never get a response at all.”
Another said, “ Last semester all my professors responded back to me within 2 days. This semester, it’s completely different…For this semester, if I had to give a rating out of 10, I’d give to the communication process a 5.”
Out of the 21 faculty members that took the survey, 85.7% said students email them every day while 14.3% said students email them every few days.
47.6% said they get three or four emails from students each day, 28.6% said they get eight or more, 14.3% said five or six and 9.5% said one or two.
Professor Sharmila Sen, the English Department chair, says she has dealt with students emailing her with plenty of questions. Through her experience in emailing students, she says, “It is not fatiguing but I hope the students understand that faculty is trying to respond as efficiently as possible.”
One professor says, “No. They don’t realize I get over a hundred emails a day and have classes and meetings, too, but if I don’t answer instantly, they write to the dean (“My teacher never responded and I need to know this!”) and to other people to get their instant answer. It ends up that three or four people are helping the same student with something that isn’t urgent, and that wastes a lot of people’s time.”
Other professors shared their complaints.
A professor says, “The only thing that will always drive me insane is that the students do not think proactively. They wait until 20 minutes before something is due to ask about it, what the assignment is, or find questions about it. So their procrastination suddenly becomes my panic as I try to get back to them so that they can make the deadline.”
Another says, “ I often wish that email didn’t exist! Students email me with questions that can be easily answered by reading the instructions, the syllabus, or Blackboard announcements. It frequently seems as if students make no effort to find the answers to their questions before relying upon me to tell them what to do.”
All complaints aside, both sides seemed to see where the other was coming from. As one student responded on the survey, “It’s really hit or miss. I know they have their own lives and I don’t expect an immediate answer, ever. But some professors seem like they really don’t even check their emails and that can be extremely frustrating.”
