Turning down students

[Jeremiah Minner]

What are your indicators that a relationship between you and a potential student is not going to work? I recently had a student who demanded I change my family schedule (start class later) to be able to let her sleep in to mid morning. This student also refused to communicate by phone and was surprised and offended when I suggested that they would need to rely on personal study and practice test taking in order to take in the information (change it from passive understanding to active application of knowledge) well enough to pass the certification exam (which this student had already failed once).

I am NOT trying to start a string of complaints about students. I AM asking if you have a metric or threshold that you use to measure your potential effectiveness with students.

In this case, after a few more conversations, I declined to further work with the student.

 

[Abby N Krane]

What are your indicators that a relationship between you and a potential student is not going to work? I recently had a student who demanded I change my family schedule (start class later) to be able to let her sleep in to mid morning. This student also refused to communicate by phone and was surprised and offended when I suggested that they would need to rely on personal study and practice test taking in order to take in the information (change it from passive understanding to active application of knowledge) well enough to pass the certification exam (which this student had already failed once).

I am NOT trying to start a string of complaints about students. I AM asking if you have a metric or threshold that you use to measure your potential effectiveness with students.

In this case, after a few more conversations, I declined to further work with the student.

Out of curiosity, how old was the student?

I often struggle setting boundaries. I know I answer emails way too late and too quickly, I pull time away from my own family to follow up or answer questions. I go above what I need to for my classes. But. Adjusting an entire class schedule like that is a no go. I do prefer to work over email instead of phone, I like having an email chain that I can point to later so there is no he-said-she-said moments. But it sounds like no matter what you did this student would not have put in the work required. No matter what you adjusted they would have have followed through. Just my gut feeling. I'd guess they were in their late teens or early 20s.

 

[Jeremiah Minner]

Out of curiosity, how old was the student?

I often struggle setting boundaries. I know I answer emails way too late and too quickly, I pull time away from my own family to follow up or answer questions. I go above what I need to for my classes. But. Adjusting an entire class schedule like that is a no go. I do prefer to work over email instead of phone, I like having an email chain that I can point to later so there is no he-said-she-said moments. But it sounds like no matter what you did this student would not have put in the work required. No matter what you adjusted they would have have followed through. Just my gut feeling. I'd guess they were in their late teens or early 20s.

Keeping a record by email is certainly important. Thank you for pointing that out. My process is to start with a phone call and introduce myself to new students and learn about their goals, etc. I then follow up with an email summarizing everything we talked about and providing my initial round of recommendations for how to success in the class.

You are right, I don't think there was anything that I could have done that would have satisfied this student.

Age? I'm not exactly sure, but young adult, so yes, I assess early to mid 20s.

Thanks for your response!

 

[Gregory Childers]

What are your indicators that a relationship between you and a potential student is not going to work? I recently had a student who demanded I change my family schedule (start class later) to be able to let her sleep in to mid morning. This student also refused to communicate by phone and was surprised and offended when I suggested that they would need to rely on personal study and practice test taking in order to take in the information (change it from passive understanding to active application of knowledge) well enough to pass the certification exam (which this student had already failed once).

I am NOT trying to start a string of complaints about students. I AM asking if you have a metric or threshold that you use to measure your potential effectiveness with students.

In this case, after a few more conversations, I declined to further work with the student.

I only work with adult learners so you can take what I say with a grain of salt.

Class times are decided by the DMs at the customer's company if it's a private class and by my managers if it's a public class. If a student can't do it then, that is on them. I'm not changing a schedule for one person.

 

[Jarrel]

What are your indicators that a relationship between you and a potential student is not going to work? I recently had a student who demanded I change my family schedule (start class later) to be able to let her sleep in to mid morning. This student also refused to communicate by phone and was surprised and offended when I suggested that they would need to rely on personal study and practice test taking in order to take in the information (change it from passive understanding to active application of knowledge) well enough to pass the certification exam (which this student had already failed once).

I am NOT trying to start a string of complaints about students. I AM asking if you have a metric or threshold that you use to measure your potential effectiveness with students.

In this case, after a few more conversations, I declined to further work with the student.

Is this a tutorial setup?
For one-to-one delivery, I use Microsoft Bookings (online app) where my clients can book a recurring or one-time schedule with me. Check this link for info.
In that way, they can see when my availability match theirs, and that's how we proceed.
Tutorials are intended to reinforce learning, and I ensure that the learners are aware of the expectations on their end as well before we agree to proceed.

For class delivery, a schedule is set for the class by the organization/institution.
The intent for class delivery is for me to teach the class. The students are likewise informed of the expectations on their end.
Having said, if the schedule doesn't match with the student, then the student can opt out.

Usually, for class delivery, the institution has a student policy which all students need to abide.
This is what I'll consider as the metric whether a student is okay to work with or not.

For one-to-one tutorials, there really ain't a metric that I can state, apart from good personal interaction.

 

[MississippiJeff]

For my classes...they are offered at the time and days that are convenient for me. If you are the prospective student and my schedule doesn't work for you...find another teacher, there are thousands to choose from I am sure someone else has the time and schedule that meets your needs. This is a hard line boundary for me because there is plenty more CIN instructors that come from all corners of the globe. If I was the ONLY person who taught this class, then I might be more flexible. There are 13 other state colleges that offer this class in our state, much less private colleges, and other states to choose from.

Now...that being said....I currently have one student who has a time conflict with one of my classes, my class time doesn't change, but he spends more than double the time he would normally sit in a classroom situation in self study and we do check-ins...all of this is during his time and at times that I don't have other obligations but is still part of my work day. If he is working when it is my time to leave, he continues, I go home, and he asks any questions the next day. I feel he is learning more than the classroom students due to the nature of this arrangement and that he is willing to go that extra mile! That type of student, I will bend over backward for.

 

[Tess Sluijter]

For one-to-one delivery, I use Microsoft Bookings (online app) where my clients can book a recurring or one-time schedule with me. Check this link for info.
In that way, they can see when my availability match theirs, and that's how we proceed.

Thanks for that suggestion!

For my current students, we're all in the same Office365 setting so we just rely on the Teams/Outlook calendars to make arrangements. But using MS Bookings sounds great for those situations where I'll tutor someone from the outside of school. I'm definitely bookmarking this.