I tend to have a problem with people who don& #39;t answer emails, usually. With this pandemic, students can& #39;t use office hours as easily. I have no idea if teachers whose classes I don& #39;t attend have organised regular online office hours. My only mean of communication is emailing..
..them. I have a background in digital communications, as ridiculous as this may sound given it was mostly in NGOs, startups, SMEs, & underpaid if paid at all. In academia I realised that comms were completely mismanaged, 90% of the time. Here are a few tips..: @AcademicChatter
1) Answering an email doesn& #39;t mean responding to the content of the email. A simple & polite answer with a timeframe info to acknowledge you received & saw their emails will make a huge difference for students. Ex: "Thank you for your email. I will do my best to get back to..
..you in a timely manner. In case you do not receive anything from me within 7 working days, please feel free to send me a reminder. If it is an urgent matter requiring a response earlier than that, please let me know by answering this email." Just an example. @OpenAcademics
2) Your time is valuable & precious, you& #39;re extremely busy, we get it. But students& #39; lives aren& #39;t just about having it easy & sitting on a chair playing some random games. Please keep that in mind & be respectful towards them. #AcademicTwitter
3) Try to answer emails (see point 1) within 3 working days maximum. That& #39;s just a good policy in any field in communications. Unless you receive 100+ such emails from students per day, try to avoid automated answers. We& #39;re all humans, ffs! #phdlife
4) If you really can& #39;t stand emails, answer & offer realistic alternatives. Do not assume your students have access to certain IT comms tools that aren& #39;t free.
5) Long emails are annoying for you? Fine, ask students to send you bullet points instead.
6) Pandemic-specific: it& #39;s safe to assume students are having a hard time as much as you are, in a different way, & they& #39;re aware you& #39;re also struggling. If they reach out, it means either they really need to, or perhaps they& #39;re seeking support without telling you directly.
7) COMMUNICATION IS KEY IN ABSOLUTELY ALL RELATIONSHIPS, PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL. If you make it hard to communicate with you, expect consequences (long & repeated emails, less patience from students, etc). Putting some effort into it is also self-care & safer for you...!
8) To students & teachers alike:
- Topic (1 sentence or line)
- Explanations (elaborate)
- Call-to-action / question (max 1 CtA & 3Qs)
Sort your email content from most important/urgent to least.
Use bold only when really necessary.
Always end an email with "Thank you."
9) SORT YOUR DAMN INBOX. And uh, schedule some time once or twice a day to answer/respond to emails.
10) If you& #39;re going through smtg making your responsiveness decrease significantly, please use an automated email mentioning it. Always. People will understand. Life happens.
I think that& #39;ll be it for now.
I& #39;m truly shocked to see how academics are doing not even half of these, most of the time. I know you& #39;re not comms managers but c& #39;mon, you& #39;re all humans, right? Systematic automated answers are OK for Heads, Directors, etc., btw.
I hope this will be useful somehow. Oh, also, it& #39;s okay to regularly clarify how you address each other. "Hello", "Dear...", "Hey", "YOOO" are all valid if agreed beforehand with the person you& #39;re sending it to. If in doubt, opt for "Dear...".
#academiclife
Let me just add to 3) that I recommend you create a document on your computer with prepared templates, and you can easily copy-paste it. But try to personalise as much as possible.
Also 10) Consider having a notepad where you take notes "who/what/when". Can be digital too.
You can follow @Hellawyn.
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