Imagine a panicked student who cannot find his reading. The frantic student sends his instructor an email in panic asking the instructor, "Where is the reading? I don't want to get a zero and I can 't find the reading!" Then as days go by, the student constantly checks his email several times a day waiting for the teacher to respond.
Each time he checks his inbox and gets no response, he is disappointed. Then, he checks again and again. It becomes addictive to keep checking the inbox hoping that magic email will pop up. Hours pass. Days pass.The student feels disappointed. The student feels abandoned by his teacher. He ultimately get a bad impression of the school because the teacher never bothers to respond to his email.
As time passes beyond the 36 to 48 hour mark, the student starts to feel angry at the teacher or at the school because nobody responds back to his email. The student thinks that because he pays the school so much money he should be treated as a customer.
The student then complains to his advisor, then he complains to the teacher's boss, then he writes on social media that the school is a bust and that's when the school starts getting a bad reputation of absent teachers!
If I were this student not receiving her email, I would just drop out of that class and out of that school because not answering email is entirely bad taste and rude on the part of the teacher. It means the teacher does not care about the student. Students end up leaving the class and the school.
It is important for teachers to immediately answer student email, to constantly comfort student nerves and anxiously, show that faculty care by giving the student comforting words, send him a solution or if the teacher does not know the solution to the response, then refer the student to somebody else who knows the answer to the question.
Nothing is worse than that constant anxiety of checking that inbox and nobody is there to answer his email Always answer student email right away to prevent student anxiety. Teachers need to inform students if they will not be able to respond to email. Teachers can put a neutral announcement in the classroom stating he will be away from the classroom due to family problems, and then the teacher should have somebody else spell him so students have somebody else they can get answers from.
If I know I cannot be in my online classroom for a while, I tell students that I won't be able to immediately answer email because of an emergency. Students are usually very understanding if they know there is a reason for your delay in their email answer. Also, I tell students that I may take longer to get back to them on weekends and I add that to my syllabus as a courtesy. I never leave my students in the dark because as a teacher, that is rude.
Therefore when I teach online, I always answer student email right away. As a matter of fact, I check my student inbox all the time several times a day and answer panicked students all the time. It gives me joy and pleasure to help students out and I really love to see my students succeed and would never want to leave my students in the dark about anything. It is my job as their teacher to be there for them.
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