Faculty Resources: Pre-Class Setup

Large lectures are common in competitive research universities. Here are several guides to help with the more practical aspects of teaching.

Pre-Class Setup

Guide to minimizing administrative emails from students:

1. Create a FAQ before class begins:

We teach freshman biology, which means we get a lot of emails before classes begin from students just beginning their college careers. We want their first experience with the course to be a positive one, but we are not interested in answering multiple emails addressed to “Dear Mrs. or Mr. X” asking about the textbook versions we will accept. We have found we can answer the majority of student questions before class using a FAQ on the class website. It requires effort to set up the first time, but can be re-used with minimal changes every year. A sample of the one we use for the online Bio 93 is here.

2. Set up an administrative MessageBoard:

Most CMS systems have some sort of discussion board. We have found that when we tell students to post their administrative questions there that they do so. Simpler questions are answered by other students. More complicated questions can be answered (once) by a TA.

3. Use Rapid Return to give back exams:

Students are appropriately concerned about what questions they missed on their exam, and whether it was graded correctly. Posting a key does not answer this. The best way to reduce student emails about their exam is to empower them with their actual exam scoring information. If you give a short-answer exam, Rapid Return the short answer portion. If you give a multiple-choice exam, Rapid Return the scantron AND post the text from the scantron analysis in their gradebook.

4. Use a survey to collect student requests:

There are several instances where you ask students to let you know if they need something – a left-handed seat for an exam, or a problem with clicker registration, or a request to regrade an exam. We have found that if we create a survey using our university’s course management system, we can force students to enter in all the information that we need, plus it keeps our inbox empty. This is particularly handy for exam re-grades, as students tend to panic when they get their score. When they use email, they might say “please re-grade my exam – I’m sure I must have more points.” When we use a survey, they have to input their name, ID, lecture section, and the SPECIFIC QUESTION that was mis-graded.