"1) that women fail to participate in
class out of fear
95
or out of a general unwillingness to engage in the
"
showmanship
"
called for in the Socratic classroom,
96
(2) that some
who begin to participate stop because they feel uncomfortable or
unwelcome,
97
and (3) that some who are determined to participate
and do participate, nevertheless, feel the pressure of speaking for all
women."
I realized the students expected me to always be online — including at 3 a.m.! By not establishing a clear response time expectation, I set myself up for poor evaluations by some students. Having been treated to instant answers early in the course, they expected that to continue throughout.
Did I mention receiving tons of email that first semester? Three weeks with 25 students had yielded more than 300 emails.
I decided to use a question and answer forum to handle the more generic questions.