OnlineProfessor

Mysterious voicemail messages to instructors

At least once per term, I get a mysterious student voicemail message that is barely understandable. I want to help the student and provide the information he or she needs, but my hands are tied if the student doesn’t even provide a name. So here are some tips to keep in mind if you must call one of your professors.

Voicemail message tip list:

• Leave your name and contact information at the beginning and at the end. It is a best practice for school and in business to learn voicemail etiquette. It’s efficient to leave your full name and contact information at the start and end of each message. I can’t tell you how many students completely forget to leave their name and contact information. This makes it difficult or impossible to get back to a student.
• Provide your course name and number. Remember that teachers often teach multiple classes. Be professional and provide instructors with your class information, and this helps them respond to you more promptly.
• Beware of cell phone reception woes. It you simply must use your cell phone to call your instructor, go to a quiet place without background noise, and be sure you’re in a spot with solid reception. Instructors often receive messages that sound like static-riddled messages from the afterworld. And it is tough to discern the content of those messages.
• Be specific. Avoid simply stating your name and asking the instructor to call you back. Provide a little information about the reason for your call. This way, an instructor can prepare resources and get back to you with a more productive and focused reply.
• Jot down notes. Keep your messages short and focused, and be clear on what you’re going to say in one message. Avoid calling an instructor three times in a row because you “forgot something.”

Every now and then, a student faces a disaster term at school where they are overwhelmed with the full course load and over-taxed at work and with their family responsibilities. Everything seems to be going wrong.

Here are some tips to help evaluate your next steps to keep calm and stay in school.

Survival tips for overwhelmed students:

• Consider the two-week rule. If you are behind two weeks or more in a certain class, consider dropping the course and re-taking it another term. But always talk it over with your advisor and instructor’s first. Sometimes, they have good tips and suggestions that will help you push through a temporary setback.
• Communicate thoroughly and immediately. Do not wait and wait for weeks to go by before you get some guidance and help. As soon as you feel you’re not going to be able to keep up with the work, reach out to your advisors and instructors. They will offer you tips on what to do next.
• Take stock and reassess. Sometimes, it’s simply about getting some family support. If you have children or have a lot of family responsibility, you’ll have to ask for more help around the house. Families can work together to reach the education goals of one family member. Other people might not be as good at certain chores, but live with it temporarily, just to get through school.
• Learn to say “no.” Going to school is no easy task. Going to school with a full-time job and a family to support is even more challenging. Sometimes, you won’t be able to help plan a niece’s birthday party or volunteer for committees at work. You will have to politely decline tasks to stay focused on school. You’ll have to be very conscious to carve out enough time in your schedule to work on school assignments.

Most importantly, do not be discouraged when you have one bad semester or a couple of tough classes. With so many distractions, you might not get all the A grades you would like, but that doesn’t mean you’re not intelligent or smart. Strive for those A’s of course, but don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t get them. Remember to see the long-term goals, and do not get discouraged by short-term setbacks.

You can do it! Share your comments about the tips and tricks you use to keep from getting overwhelmed. We want to hear about your success stories; so we can all do better together.

At the middle of every term, some students find that one of their classes is too overwhelming for them. And if they are failing the course by midterm, they need to make some tough decisions about withdrawing. Here are some questions to consider before you make up your mind.

Title of tip list:

• How badly are you failing? Look at the syllabus and do the math. If you need to make perfect scores on every future assignment just to pass, the logical assumption is that it might not be a realistic endeavor.
• Does the instructor accept late work or extra credit? If you missed a major assignment recently, and know you can make it up, discuss it with the instructor. Sometimes a key assignment can get you back in the game. However, not every instructor accepts late work or extra credit. So do not assume that they do.
• Do I lose any financial aid in the future for withdrawing? Ask your advisor and financial aid counselor about the impact of changing your schedule in the middle of the term.
• Did you discuss all your options with your advisor? Make sure you know all your options by speaking with your advisor. Be informed and take control of your education.

Remember, you’re not a failure for withdrawing from a class. Plenty of students need to retake a college class that was particularly challenging. Assess what you will do differently the next term to avoid repeating errors, and simply push forward with a better strategy the next time around. Good luck!

Students taking online classes often wonder how much material they should choose to print from the online course content. It’s good to print some things for convenience and for backup purposes, but it’s not always useful or wise to print everything.

First, it’s good to have a portable hard drive or flash drive because it will just make your life a lot easier. The tip lists below will explain more about why.

Definitely Print:

• The class syllabus: This is almost always a good thing to print and keep in a handy place that goes with you everywhere, like a binder or folder. The syllabus usually contains a summary of all the course policies, instructor contact information, and the basic assignment details/due dates.
• Important contacts: You should always have access to the contact information for your advisor, your instructors, and administrators (the Registrar’s Office, Financial Aid, etc.).

Probably Print:
The items in this list can also be saved to a hard drive, portable hard drive, disk, or flash drive. Usually, you can save Web pages as PDFs or simply do a copy-paste into a Word document. Either way, as long as you have an accessible, digital copy that is not reliant on an internet connection, you should be in good shape.

• Details of your major course projects: Every class has a few, major projects due throughout the term. It’s good to keep track of those very closely. Midterm exams and research papers will require some long-term planning.
• Instructor tips: If your instructor takes the time to outline some success tips for the class, you might want to print or digitally save those somewhere. Professors who take the time to provide this information are basically giving you a road map to success. So it’s silly to ignore that.
• Past quizzes and exams: Part of the learning process is building upon past mistakes. If you take a quiz and get a few answers wrong, you want to be sure you go back and learn from those errors. This will help you prepare for future exams and projects. If you have a repeated weakness, this will also help you identify those patterns so you can focus on them.

Tests and quizzes are a part of most classes. However, online classes have some unique components and challenges.

Online test-taking tips:

• Beware of the open-book quiz. An open-book quiz might sound easy, but it’s not. Usually, an open-book quiz has very restricted time limits so that it’s impossible to look up every answer. If you think you’ll have time to stop and look up every answer, you’ll likely end up with half the test incomplete when the time limit expires.
• Be prepared. Keep scrap paper handy to work out math problems or outline a short essay response. Just because the test is online doesn’t mean you won’t need to organize your thoughts or jot down a few notes.
• Choose a quiet place. Clear out the house or close the bedroom door with a “do not disturb” sign posted outside. Do what it takes to eliminate distractions.
• Don’t wait until the last minute. Avoid waiting until the last minute to take a test. If your computer dies or a work project keeps you late, that’s no excuse for missing the test completely. Instructors usually provide a large window of time to take online tests; so if a student takes the risk of starting the test very close to the deadline, he will not likely receive extensions or allowances.
• Reconsider computer changes or upgrades prior to big projects. So often, students install software or purchase computers the day before a major project is due. This is very risky and should be reconsidered because any software adjustments can cause glitches.
• Prepare backup. Make sure you have a backup computer and internet source ready for the day you take your exam. You might never need it, but the one time you do, you’ll be glad you thought ahead.
• Keep saving your answers. Computers time out and internet connections get lost. Avoid losing all your work by saving often.

Every school has some kind of Web page, bulletin board, or announcement area where they post and share important deadlines and information. It’s amazing how many students simply ignore this integral resource, and this can cost them dearly when it comes to their grades, financial aid, and even graduation requirements.

Looking over my student records over the past several years, I’ve found that it’s clear that a majority of student mistakes could have been avoided if they had just read the class announcements more diligently. It sounds overly simple to “check your messages and class announcements,” but it can be the key to performing your best and avoiding huge time-wasters.

Some Common Things Posted in Class Announcements:

• School deadlines for financial aid: If you don’t get your forms properly filed on time, you’ll probably end up blocked from your classes at some point. And that’s a huge setback that could have been avoided.
• Tips for assignments: Almost all instructors post reminders and tips on how to approach upcoming assignments. Students who do not read announcements can miss explanations of instructions that directly impact their grades.
• Updates and changes to assignments: Sometimes, assignments are moved, updated, or cancelled. If you don’t read your assignments, you can spend a lot of time working on assignments that don’t exist anymore.
• Grading announcements: Instructors often let students know when grades have been posted. This means you can immediately review instructor comments on your past work so you can avoid repeating errors in future work.
• Career Development seminars and activities: It’s a shame that students do not take more advantage of resources that they can only get while in school. Career Development departments work overtime to get you prepared for your career, and they’re an underutilized resource.

For business and in school, e-mail communication is quite important. Sending an e-mail to your online professor is more efficient if you follow a few, simple tips.

E-mail Best Practices:

• Be Specific with the Subject Line. If you want a quick answer, be organized by putting specific information in the subject line of your message. Type your name, the class number, and the topic of your message. Simply typing a vague phrase like “question” or “information needed” is not very helpful.
• Be clear. When you type your question, be brief and clear. Explain your issue in a precise manner. Read over your message to be sure your phrasing is understandable. Messages sent in a rush without the proper review can lead to cryptic content that confuses the instructor. And if you have to go back and forth a few times just to clarify the question itself, it’s a waste of everyone’s time.
• Clearly identify yourself. I can’t tell you how many messages instructors receive with no identification. Instructors can usually make out a student’s name through the e-mail address, but if you have an odd e-mail name like Supergamer1000@gmail.com then it’s unprofessional to leave your instructor guessing about your identity.
• Be organized. Plan your message well. Sending an instructor ten messages in a row because you kept forgetting to add information can really be inefficient. It can also slow down the response time.
• Be professional. Remember to use care with written communication. Avoid sounding rude or unprofessional, even if you’re identifying an issue or problem.

Instructors want to be helpful, and if students do their part to make things clear and efficient, everyone wins.

Have a comment or question? Share it with us via the comment section located at the end of each article.

With all the tools available to students today, one would think that their work would be top-rate and error free. However, any tool can cause more trouble than it’s worth if it’s not used wisely. Here are some tips to keep in mind.

Making Friends with Technology:

• Grammar and Spell-check functions do not catch every mistake. No computer platform can replace a careful human review. So don’t over-rely on these tools.
• Copy-paste is easy but it can be messy. Some students input everything into Microsoft Word or some other, equivalent platform so they can use the system’s spell-check and grammar-check functions. That’s great thinking. But when they copy-paste into the online course platform and hit “save/submit,” sometimes odd symbols and characters show up, making their entry look cluttered and unprofessional. A workaround: once you’re finished working in MS Word, Save As a .txt file. Close out. Re-open the .txt version of the document; then copy-paste from there. (There might be an easier, alternate way, and if you have one, please share it in a comment.)
• Create a clear document naming system. Many students have so many versions of their work that they submit the incorrect one for grading. It’s a silly error that can be avoided if you name your documents properly. Use terms like DRAFT1, DRAFT2, REVISED, and FINAL to distinguish your project files. Only use “FINAL” title for the one document that’s ready to be submitted.
• Double-check the MLA and AP auto-formatting. MLA, AP and whatever other style of documentation are way too complex to fully rely on an auto-formatting system. Sometimes, the tools are more complicated than manually documenting your sources. So experiment and see what works for you. Remember, if you don’t know the basic tenets of the citation style, it will be very hard to properly use a software platform to do it for you.

If you have other suggestions, comments or questions, feel free to share them with us by submitting a comment.

Whether your term lasts for 16, 10, or 5 weeks, the end of the term is a busy crush of last-minute assignments. And if you’re taking more than one course, every one of them probably has a project due –or an exam—during that last week of class.

End-of-Semester Survival Tips:

• Clear your calendar in advance. At the start of the term, mark the final week of classes on your calendar, and don’t plan anything that week. If you have a wedding, family reunion or vacation planned for that last week, communicate with your instructors immediately, and reconsider taking a full course load.
• Start projects early. Procrastinators take heed. Most students who take a tumble in grades usually fell down during that last week of the class. I’ve seen student grades go from B’s to D’s right in that last week – all because they waited unti the last minute and made some avoidable mistakes.
• Schedule childcare. Now is the time to call in some favors. Drop the children off at their grandparents’ house or in daycare. You’ll need a clear head to finish out the term strong.
• Cook meals in advance or get takeout. Daily chores can eat into our study time. The more things you can square away in advance, the more time you’ll have during finals week to prepare your school projects.
• Go to the library. If you live in a full house, you might want to spend as much time at the library as possible. Too often, studying at home leads to distractions; so it’s sometimes better to just remove yourself from home to squeeze in some focused study time.
• Celebrate birthdays early. If your child is celebrating a birthday the week of finals, celebrate it the weekend before. Most people won’t complain about early presents.

Keep in mind that if you haven’t done any work the entire semester, a last-minute crunch isn’t going to save you. But if you’ve been fairly involved with your courses all term, these tips will help keep you a little calmer and productive. Good luck!

At the end of almost every term, at least one student argues that they deserve an “A,” even when his/her scores did not meet that standard. Quite often, they just missed it with an “A-” or a “B+.”

One of the biggest pet peeves for an instructor is to hear a student say, “But I’m a straight-A student. I always get A’s.”

However, just because you’ve gotten A’s before does not mean you’re simply entitled to get an A every time. Each term is a new proving ground. An instructor is not influenced by your past grades.

Should “C” students be locked into “C” grades?
If this doesn’t sound fair to you, consider this scenario: If you once received a “C” in a recent course, do you then expect to receive a “C” in another course even if you scored higher? That would be absurd. You want the chance to show that you can do better.

It is equally unfair to grant you an “A” just because you achieved that high score in the past.

It is great that some students are ambitious and strive for a stellar grade point average. However, it goes against the spirit of learning to expect a grade for anything other than your performance in a particular class.