First, the students' decision to ask you questions directly makes sense if you consider their decision from their perspective. As a student, would you rather spend 30 seconds asking the lecturer a question directly; or spend 10 minutes to read through the syllabus carefully to find the answer to the question himself/herself? By asking you questions directly, the students are merely minimizing their effort in order to get the information that they require.
You should consider whether the syllabus is well-organized and clearly written. If the syllabus is long and rambling, it is understandable why the students prefer not to read it. As a teacher, I believe that it is your responsibility to spend a reasonable effort to organize course related information so that it is easy for a student to understand.
I'm currently teaching a course with more than 600 students. We seldom receive e-mail inquiries from students. I believe the reason for this is that I spent quite a bit of time thinking through how to structure our course webpage so that it is easy for students to find the information they need.
- We have a master page which contains links to the pages on specific topics.
- We have a webpage which contains information about the textbook for the course. This webpage contains a table which indicates which chapter and which pages of the textbook to read for each lecture.
- We have a webpage which contains information about the quizzes. This webpage explains clearly which lectures are tested for each quiz.
Finally, I would not answer any questions if the answers are clearly written in a document which has been given to the students. For example, if you have a short webpage or document which contains all the information relevant say to Quiz 1, and students ask you questions about Quiz 1, I would just tell the students, "Please read the Quiz 1 document carefully for the answer to your question."
manpreet![Tuteehub forum best answer]()
Best Answer
3 years ago
I maintain an email group for my class where the reading list and other course materials are made available to the students. Despite sharing all relevant information with them, I still have students asking me exact page numbers and sections from the book, and whether 'Topic X or Y will be on the exam'. I am fed up! Am I obliged to entertain these queries? They usually ask these queries on email or typically on sms.
This is a second-year undergraduate class (about 50 students) majoring in economics. I teach them a statistics course. I've included a link to the syllabus (page 2 of linked document).