student expectations?
As some of you know, I’m a college instructor. A friend of mine encountered something I’ve seen recently as well, and I’m curious to know if others have seen it as well.
My friend (at a different institution) received an email from a student enrolled in her class shortly before the midterm a couple of weeks back. The student asked where notes for the class could be accessed.
“They’re not online,” my friend replied. “Students are expected to take their own notes.”
The student responded with anger and surprise. The problem? The student was unable to actually attend class. He assumed the notes would be available for download somewhere and now, halfway through the term and right before an exam, was shocked – shocked! to learn this wasn’t the case.
Even though it’s spelled out in the syllabus.
“How am I supposed to pass the class?” he asked incredulously. “I have a scheduling conflict! I can’t take notes on my own!”
My friend suggested that this student ask to borrow another student’s notes. She even offered to help identify someone who might be able to provide them. But that, to this student, wasn’t good enough – he wanted the instructor’s own notes, which she is not willing to provide.
I had three or four students in the same situation during the pandemic. Students would often assume courses being taught online were also being recorded, and were disappointed to learn that mine weren’t. But this was in the context of an online course, and in all cases, the students reached out to me before classes started. They were reckless enough to register for a class they couldn’t actually attend, but at least had the good sense to ask ahead of time and not wait until several weeks into the term.
This case was different. It’s not an online class. The student simply assumed notes are available online and didn’t ask in advance if that was the case.
I teach the same way. I expect students to take notes. I do this because there’s plenty of research out there showing material is retained better if one writes it down. I have friends and colleagues who provide notes, and that’s OK – we all have different pedagogical philosophies. I also sometimes provide the text for some of my powerpoints if there’s a lot of it, or if it covers a a particularly complex subject in which precise wording is important. I also provide all of the pictures I use in class. But overall, I really do think students learn better if they take their own notes.
The student in my friend’s class is better off than he’d been in my class – my friend uses a textbook for her class. I don’t use textbooks*. So at least he’s got that. And had he simply asked in advance if taking the course without attending lecture was an option, he’d probably have registered for a different class that worked better with his schedule. But he made a bad assumption, and now he’s struggling to adapt on the fly.
Have any of you who teach encountered similar assumptions on the part of students?
A couple of additional points:
First – yes, I know students have busy schedules and often have great difficulty in arranging a class schedule that accommodates other commitments, including jobs. But that’s why we have academic advisors whose job is to work with students to make sure they meet their goals. (That’s also why we have higher learning institutions that cater to students whose realities don’t match the expectations of a traditional campus setting.) My point isn’t that students should or shouldn’t expect something – it’s that they should ask before making assumptions.
Second – as I said, I have friends who provide notes. In some contexts, it makes perfect sense. It’s reasonable, for example, if there’s so much text provided during class that even a professional stenographer would struggle to keep up. And I understand the rationale that it’s harder to listen when one is writing something down. So I don’t dismiss providing notes as a blanket opinion. But in my experience, for the kinds of courses I teach, it makes more sense to have students take their own notes.
*Not only are textbooks overpriced, there aren’t any usable textbooks for my subjects. They’re either out of date, poorly organized, or both. They’d be a source of confusion rather than illumination.
= new reply since forum marked as read
If someone can learn the content by reading a text book but not listening to the lecture or by listening to the lecture but not reading the text book, all the power to them. A professor who requires students to participate in multiple modes of learning (listening, reading, writing) maximizes the odds of subject retention across the entire student spectrum though.
As someone else mentioned in this thread, part of life is understanding other people's expectations and tailoring our actions towards them. It sounds like the student mentioned in the OP is learning that lesson the hard way. I would also argue that being able to identify keys points from information being delivered orally is still very much a useful life skill, even if not quite as important as in days past.
Also, I'm not a teacher but I am colledge educated and can still have an opinion. 
