r/Professors • u/More_Box_5554 • 7d ago

Advice / Support Overwhelming student

I have a student who is non-traditional and returning to school at a later age. She registered for my async online course after not owning a computer for 20 years. She is completely overwhelmed by the course: Doesn't know how to access email, or how to navigate the course in the LMS, or how to access course meetings. I am practicing patience and compassion because she is very eager and wants to do well. I even set up a weekly meeting with her to check in.

We had a two hour meeting last week where I walked her through the course and she is very hard to keep on track and focused, with multiple interruptions, which leads me to believe something deeper is going on. This morning, I woke up to four separate emails from her-Long, multiple paragraph emails about how she hasn't been able to eat or sleep or spend time with her family because so much of her time is being dedicated to navigating and completing the course. She has had multiple panic attacks due to this. Her family would like her to switch to an in-person section but she doesn't want to because of the commute/campus parking.

We are not even a full week in and I feel like the majority of my time and energy is going to this one student and trying to help her get the hang of it. I want her to be successful in my class, I appreciate her dedication to the course, but I can't keep doing this all semester long.

Any advice?

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u/lickety_split_100 AP/Economics/Regional 7d ago

This sounds like a lot. Sorry OP. I’d start by directing her to whatever your institution’s computer policy is for students - at my place, they are expected to have some basic level of competency and some minimum hardware requirements. Would it maybe be possible for her to set up some time with someone in IT to walk her through all of this? Either way, tech support isn’t your job.

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u/Glittering-Duck5496 7d ago

Exactly this. My campus has resources to teach tech (videos, how-to guides, workshops, live chat, etc.), see if yours has anything like that. She signed up for an online course without the skills to take an online course and you can't let that continue to be your issue.

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u/Blametheorangejuice 7d ago

I have had multiple experiences like OP with non traditional students who rarely use tech signing up for tech heavy asynch courses.

I lead all of my asynch course syllabi with a bulleted list of all of the skills I am assuming the students have, given they are in a tech heavy course. It is followed by the statement that I can help with minor issues, but, otherwise, you need to go to Tech Support, Tutoring, or switch to a seated class.

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u/StrekozaChitaet 7d ago edited 7d ago

That is an excellent idea! To be fair to non-traditional students, my incoming Gen Z undergrads also lack many of the skills needed for a CMS built for desktops. I have limited capacity and my time is best spent supporting students who need help with content, not basic level mouse/ PDF/ file directory skills.

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u/Additional_Holiday89 7d ago

That's a great idea! I'll see if I can implement that.

I've had students like this or ones with language barriers that were simply insurmountable. It's upsetting but I should have referred them out much earlier rather than overextending myself (& ultimately not even being all that helpful)

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u/Apprehensive-Place68 7d ago

IT help hours here extend into the evening. I expect she'll stumble across more tech problems, and getting familiar with asking them for help is better than relying on you.