Tutoring and e-mail: there are limits to familiarity and impertinence

Managing professional relationships

While most faculties recognize the benefits of e-mail, there are some less attractive effects, including the erosion of boundaries that traditionally separated teachers and students.

While e-mail can help identify students who are having difficulty, or encourage the participation of more reserved students, a growing number of students are asking their instructors inappropriate questions, often with unrealistic expectations.

For example, a first-year student asking one of the university's most prestigious professors what school supplies he should buy... or students claiming to have missed a class because they were hungover, or asking for the lecture notes they missed, many students simultaneously asking for feedback on 250-page assignments, giving advice on how to teach, or criticizing their classmates, all without considering the consequences of their statements on their eventual evaluation.

Many teachers don't know how to deal with this phenomenon, or how direct and frank they should be with these students, especially as there are now so many forums and opportunities to evaluate teachers' performance.

Clearly establishing expectations and possibilities at the beginning of the session avoids the majority of problems with e-mail.

For the full article: " To: [email protected] Subject: Why It's All About Me" New York Times, February 21, 2006

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