Small Changes, Large Rewards: How Individualized Emails Increase Performance in an Upper Division Physiology Course

Abstract

“I really do appreciate your concern! Very rare to find a professor like that!” This was a sentence in an email I received from a struggling student in my Cardiovascular Physiology course, an upper division elective course in the Physiology Department at the University of Arizona in Tucson.As teachers, we tend to gravitate towards the students who seem engaged, who are interactive, who are interested in what we're talking about. The ones who struggle are often forgotten, hiding in large classes, rarely adding to the conversation.So, how do we engage these students, who can make up a significant fraction of the student (or classroom) population? Show them we care!Four years ago, I started sending personalized emails (in which the body of each email was the same, but they were addressed to each student individually) to students who received a failing score on the first of three exams, approximately 10% of a class of 200. In the email, I pointed out that the student didn't do as well as expected on the exam, and that, however, it was still early in the semester; that changing habits now could turn their grade around. Then I asked them whether they knew why they hadn't performed well. I gave some suggestions, such as: coming to class, participating in discussions; attending office hours, creating and using study groups. I finished by reiterating the fact that together we could improve their standing in the class.When schools around the country are worried about graduation rates, there is an increased emphasis on retention. Schools are adding programs to help at‐risk students, hiring tutors, working with underserved populations. All of which is slowly increasing the number of graduates.Perhaps, just a short email to a struggling student might help.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.