Why did instructor NOT e-mail me with his edits?

Question

Last year I took this night class. I did an extra credit assignment. Instructor was so impressed that he voluntarily sent me another to do. He's like, "do this if you have time and I'll get edits to you. Keep up the good work!" Well, I didn't have time to turn it in before the last class meeting and told him via email that I only had a draft. He's like, "get it in when you can...you know you'll get an A!" I turned it in maybe a week or so later. All he had to do was read it and provide one sentence of feedback. But I heard nothing. To digress a moment, I met up with a friend and former classmate a few weeks ago for lunch. She turned in a final paper after the class ended and she never heard either. Basically, I'd like to know why instructors are so lazy (or maybe they don't care) that they can't lift a finger and provide student feedback! Any insights about this situation?

I never did remind him. It was always at the back of my mind, though. I was always curious to see what he had to say but I just didn't bother asking him. I guess I gradually lost interest.

lyonefein, Of course, I know I’m not the center of the universe. I’m a very humble person and down to earth. Not showy or conceited. True to myself. I don’t reveal details of my life unless they are family and close friends. I don’t worry if they remember or not. Yeah, I could’ve reminded him, but like I said in my above post, I lost interest. I figured, why bother. Some of my emails were ignored anyway. I asked him and another teacher for a favor which involved writing something. Both agreed. I wrote and submit. One followed through, the other didn’t – the one who didn’t get back to me with the edits. So I assumed s/he didn’t care. Anyway, maybe lazy wasn’t the right term but when someone says they will do something they should commit to it! I agree wholeheartedly with much of what you said. Thanks for the wonderful advice!

There was nothing wrong with my email. All s/he had to do was hit "reply." My mailbox is never full. I have lots of space.

Answer 1

I know it may look like "laziness" on the instructor's part, but please consider these facts: you have probably 3-5 instructors....yet how often do you forget things they say to you? Your instructor has anywhere from 75-? (25 per class) students. If your teacher is an adjunct, then s/he probably has 2-3 other part time jobs.

In addition to preparing for class (which takes about 2-3 hours for every hour of instruction), s/he has 74 other students who, like yourself, are not following the syllabus (they are ahead or behind), and are giving him/her scraps of paper at various times in various places around campus.

You should always assume that, in your interactions with others (not just teachers), you are not the center of the universe. People will not remember the details of your life, unless those details are personally relevant to them.

Your instructor needs you to remind him/her of things. It is not an insult to her/him. If a teacher tells you to expect an e-mail and it doesn't come, then you definitely need to send her one yourself. This is part of your half of the deal: you need to take an active role in your own education if you want to get your money's worth.

--Just like social interactions--if a friend misses an appointment, you need to call them to find out why. A lot of times, it turns out that we have miscommunications with others. You thought it was a definite meeting, but she thought you two were leaving it up in the air.

There is the saying "the squeaky wheel gets the oil." That is true everywhere in life--especially when you are competing with 74 other people for time and attention. Your professor is definitely "lifting a finger" for those students who keep in communication with him. It is up to you to be one of those, OK?

Another very likely possibility is that there was something wrong with your e-mail. Was your mailbox full? Do you have a spam-guard on? Did you quickly scribble your e-mail address in a barely legiable scrawl?

Answer 2

College instructors often have hundreds of pages to read at the end of a term. As a student I always thought that instructors spent a lot of time worrying over my papers and ideas. As an instructor I realize that's impossible. If, as a teacher, you have 50, 5-page papers to read carefully, and each paper takes 15 minutes, that's at least 12 hours of reading and grading. Instructors often teach three or four classes, most with end of the term papers and tests. Instructors can be as overwhelmed as students. When students are done with the term, and on break, instructors usually are working hard to get grades out. This is a time when they are likely to forget details. Students rarely pick up final term papers or tests, even if teachers make a lot of effort to write comments. Based on past experience, instructors may believe that students don't really care about those final comments, that all they really care about is the final grade. So if teachers forget what they said they'd do, it's okay to remind them.

Answer 3

You'd be surprised, but instructors are also human - he might have simply forgotten he'd promised to give you a feedback, especially if you say some time has elapsed from the moment you talked to him last. That is just one, most probable, explanation for it. The other one concerns the question of how much trust you put in your instructor. What kind of assignment have you done? Can it be passed off like your instructor's work? Think about the fact that an encouragement for a good student is an extra day off, not an extra assignment lol. Could it be that your instructor just used you and you've done his job for him? Anyway, i think there's nothing to worry about for you, either way you've done well. Acknowledgement is bound to come presently, you really deserve it!

Answer 4

You didn't have time to turn in an assignment on time, but you expect him to give you feedback after the semester was over? He probably would have given you feedback if you gave it to him on time, but you waited until the absolute busiest time of the year, when he probably had hundreds of papers to grade and a tight deadline to meet. It isn't that instructors are lazy or don't care, but there is only so much that they can do at any given time (It often takes me an hour or more to grade a paper. If I'm teaching 100 students, and have a term paper and final exam from each, that could be 200 hours. My university gives me 5 days after the last day of finals to get grades in, so if my exams are late in the week, I often have to go on an hour or so of sleep for a couple of days.

Answer 5

I really have created an more advantageous "type" that I call technology supplementations -- I further the 25 or so center college technology instructors in my district and all of us have the means to upload diverse records to the region. that's prepared via grade and via unit.

Answer 6

The same thing happened to me. I took a class and the final exam grade was all I received; and not what I did well or bad on.

Answer 7

he must have forgotten....
so forgive and forget man