Respond to online students' e-mails

After being an online student in a very interactive environment for over a year now, I have often contemplated the work load of an online teacher. I think of the hours spent creating the coursework to post online, the hours gathering the appropriate online supplemental materials, the hours reading all the things students create whether assignments, discussion board posts, or . . . e-mail.

As a student I’ve tried very hard to keep my e-mailing to my instructors to a minimum. As a classroom teacher, though, and with my experiences with various students, my suspicion is that there are students that e-mail instructors frequently. Ko and Rossen recommend that certain e-mail guidelines be spelled out ahead of time, so students know what you as a teacher will respond to (p. 253). While I understand that recommendation, my gut reaction is that as a teacher, one must be very careful not to come across as defensive or out-of-reach or too authoritarian.

According to Kearsley and Blomeyer at http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/TeachingOnline.htm, effective online teachers must enjoy "one-on-one interaction," be prepared to write a lot, and "provide timely and meaningful feedback." All of these criteria would certainly apply to responding to student e-mail. Perhaps I’ve just been in small online courses, but I’m extremely grateful that my online instructors always responded to me.