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[yemaya]

I have a student who is, for a lack of a better phrase, borderline illiterate and terminally confused.  She's having trouble understanding basic policies from the syllabus and responds by posting snotty comments on the general questions board. This is a first-term student.  I strongly suspect that she will not be successful in college.  I'm not sure how to handle her, and more importantly, to avoid having her poison the rest of the course.

[theritas]

I'm bookmarking / hoping you get good suggestions. 

I'll add that, based upon the title, I thought this post was about one of my administrators, whose e-mail responses never address the original question or routinely disconnect from any data provided.

[caesura]

How snotty?  Mildly whining or downright hostile?  It's hard to know how to suggest you respond without having more specifics.  You basically have all the same options you'd have if she asked a snotty question in a f2f class: ignore her, respond just to the content of the question, call her out privately or publicly on her inappropriate tone, etc.  Plus, if it's bad enough, you can remove the post altogether. 

I've found, with students with poor reading skills, I have to teach them how to read an assignment.  For one course, I made a PowerPoint that walks them through their first prompt, with instructions on how to underline significant words in the prompt and make a list of everything the prompt asks for before beginning the work.  It seems to help, at least some of the students.   

[yemaya]

Pretty hostile - lots of whining about what her other professors have done/let her do, complaints about basic course deadlines and attributing stuff to the syllabus that just isn't there.  Mild complaining, I'd just ignore. 

[caesura]

My one-line reply to such discussion board messages:  "I have sent you an email about this."

Then I deal with it by email and ask that all further communication about his/her work be by email (on the ground that individuals' work should be discussed privately).  

She sounds like someone who should get simple answers, repeated as necessary, for example, "As it states on the syllabus, the deadline is X."  I wouldn't rise to the bait of discussing what other professors have done or other peripheral issues.  

[samspade]

Why not give her the grade her work deserves? If she turns in F work, flunk her. The college admitted her-doesn't mean you have to pass her.

[voxprincipalis]

Pretty hostile - lots of whining about what her other professors have done/let her do, complaints about basic course deadlines and attributing stuff to the syllabus that just isn't there.  Mild complaining, I'd just ignore.  

It seems to me that if she is a first-semester student, then this is an especially important time for you to be polite but very firm with deadlines and classroom management. She needs to learn that course deadlines and policies aren't going to change to suit her convenience, and that your classroom is not a democracy. Then she can decide whether she is willing to work under those stipulations or not. If so, great; if not, that's OK too, and she will either drop the course or fail it.

I suspect she is not winning herself any friends by doing a lot of complaining; the responsible students tend (in my experience) to see things for how they are. But your interactions with her will demonstrate to them that deadlines and expectations are firm, without they themselves having to be the ones on the other end of the question. In some ways she could be doing you a favor by setting you up so well to reinforce policy.

VP

[zharkov]

For an online course, it helps to have a list of "how to learn online" or "netaquite" or some such collection of guidelines.  (Maybe you do that already?)  So if the student is stepping over the line with complaints, point that out.

Keep in mind that some people just like to complain, that some people don't pay attention, and some people BOTH don't pay attention AND like to complain. 

[yemaya]

Thanks, everyone.  I've responded to her "queries" by reiterating the policies that are already in the syllabus.  I do have some guides to netiquette and all that, but I suspect that it's completely lost on her.  I'm sure she'll roast me on my evaluations, but now she's left a proverbial paper trail that she's a whining, irresponsible PITA.

[whipkitty]

For an online course, it helps to have a list of "how to learn online" or "netaquite" or some such collection of guidelines.  (Maybe you do that already?)  So if the student is stepping over the line with complaints, point that out.

Keep in mind that some people just like to complain, that some people don't pay attention, and some people BOTH don't pay attention AND like to complain. 

Chime.

[gbrown]

Yemaya,
I hear you. Tough situation. I teach transfer-level courses online and developmental readings courses f2f. One thing I've noticed is that poor reading skills are THE KEY to student failure. The worst thing these students can do is take an online course. That said, one thing I push in *every* e-mail response is to prod them to see our tutors f2f. Often they can walk students through an online process and if info is offered, can refer them to disability services. Whiny online students are a drag. I have 4 or 5 right now in my online tech writing course, but I bit it in the nub by
1) posting student sample work (with permission from the author) for each assignment,
2) creating "feedback" for every quiz or assessment question that mentions *the page number in the textbook* where the correct answer can be found, and
3) answer only the simplest questions by e-mail. With the long, vague, rambling "why didn't I get a 100% on this assignment" complaints, I feign a bit of confusion and respond something like this,

"I hear that you're frustrated. I'm not sure I understand your concern completely. Please drop by my office (then state my regular office hours and offer to make times outside of that)... and we'll chat about this."

The few that make the effort really just want to put a "face" to the online experience, I get to hold the line with my curriculum and assessments and they feel taken care of.

Oh, and 4) I use the "empathy sandwich" technique. Start with a) I hear you're (put an emotion in here). State my real response next: b) My policies do state... xxx ... so I won't be able to reinstate those points." And last, c) "Be sure to make time to review x, y, and z so that you're ready for Friday's assignment." Last, I sign off, "Thanks for letting me know about this situation". With this technique, I get 10% of the whiny e-mails that I used to. And because I'm just recognizing their mood, redirecting their attention (to work on the next assignment), and restating the policies I'm not changing, I get what they want, and they go away somewhat mollified.

[yemaya]

Thanks, Gbrown!  I just caught one of my weaker students cheating, so she's now done for the course.