What to Expect: Professor-Student Relationships in Online Schooling
This March, a York University student located in Myanmar contacted course instructor Emanoil Theodorescu asking for a deferral on their midterm exam. The student explained that an ongoing military coup had occurred and that many protestors had been shot; as a result, the country’s internet and communications were going to be shut down by military forces. The professor acknowledged this and allowed the student to transfer the weight of the midterm to the final exam, but when the student wrote back to confirm they were cleared to miss the midterm the professor answered the student in a very harsh, and many argue disrespectful, manner which scorned both the students need for an extension and was also very dismissive of the dire situation the country was in. This later half of the exchange was as follows:
As a result of the screenshots spreading across the internet, York University released a statement saying that the professor’s statements did not reflect the University’s values, and that the professor had been removed from the course. Naturally, there has been widespread disappointment in the lack of understanding as well as frustrations with school having been online for the past year. This now leads to a discussion of newer, evolving student-professor relationships.
In Lakehead University’s “Employee Code of Conduct,” the responsibility of all employees to uphold the rights of others is thoroughly detailed. The Lakehead Standards of Ethical Conduct states that “in accordance with its purpose, the Code prescribes standards of ethical conduct in six categories: personal integrity, respect for others, compliance with law and policy, diligence and efficiency, protection of the University's assets and records, and community involvement and public communications”. Generally speaking, most students expect their professors to be professional and respectful at all times. More specifically, I think that we would all expect a certain degree of leeway if our country were to shut down the internet nation-wide.
In this period of online schooling, students are expected to regularly commit to numerous, well-researched discussion posts a week instead of the previous expectation of raising their hands in class to comment on course content. As a result, there is an increased burden of screen time. The same goes for professors, who are left to spend hours upon hours lecturing to blank screens and names without seeing a student's face. Is it easier to disregard or disrespect a person that you do not have to see face to face? Are both professors and students forgetting the ethical conduct that we used to uphold in person?
The relationships between students and professors are now seldom personal. Emails must be sent, Zoom meetings must be scheduled, and instructions are largely up for interpretation by students on D2L. Although we have all gained more safety and flexibility by working from home, most could argue that the quality of education has decreased while tuition costs remain the same. We evidently cannot build the same relationships between professors and students that we used to, but do our expectations remain the same?
Source for Picture:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/york-university-instructor-myanmar-1.5955936