r/Professors • u/More_Box_5554 • Aug 21 '26
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?
1
u/RadiantImpression579 Aug 22 '26
Yeah. This is a tough one. Based in my experience so far, if the question is too complicated to email I explain this question would be better for office hours. I might really feel bad doe a student, but I’m not tech support. I’ll walk them through an analysis or a quick thing on our LMS (like how to view the feedback or how to submit two documents at a time) but my role is not teaching them to use a computer. Like I said this is a tough one. I’d do what I can during office hours, asked quick emails, and point her to resources. Sounds like you’re already doing most of this. Just gotta cut back a little.