The Withdrawal Email

As the “Last Day to Withdraw from a Course” deadline fast approaches, I prepare the “Withdrawal Reminder Email” that will be sent to my students.
This is an Email that I do not look forward to sending. Despite the course Grading & Evaluation syllabus document, Instructor Emails explaining how the course grading works, and the “Release Final Calculated Grade to Students”, there's often one or more people who have somehow confused the “add up the points to determine your grade” policy. Occasionally and unbeknown to me, people devise their own method of “averaging”…adding up a few grades then dividing by same which resulted in a “C” grade within the first 3 weeks of the course. Lulled by this false sense of security, the withdrawal email comes as quite a shock even if individual progress reports were sent earlier on in a semester.

“Withdrawal’ will not apply to all students but the informational reminder Email is sent to everyone so that no one person feels ‘singled out’ to consider withdrawing although, after reading the contents of the Email, it will become apparent to a student whether or not the message pertains to their current course progress.

- In this Email I include a link to the Course Grading and Evaluation document. (This link also appears in the General Comments area of each student’s Course Grade Link.)

- I include a grade point range where the class generally falls at this moment in time in the semester so that students can evaluate where their grade stands.

- I state the remaining course quizzes and assignments along with the possible point values they can attain.

- Then students are asked to realistically self-assess how many of the remaining assignments and quizzes they will complete. They are also urged not to estimate and assign full points for all remaining work but rather to back off a bit and allow for errors or problems.

- Before closing the Email, the one thing I ask is that students please NOT email me the following question: “Do you think I will pass the course?”
They can ask me questions about anything in the Withdrawal Email or anything about the course requirements but I make it clear that it would be very unfair of me to judge them and assess their ability to rally and complete remaining course requirements if their grade and performance to date have been fair to poor.
“Can pass” is very different than “will pass”.
I believe the best way I can help borderline students to decide whether to remain in the course until the end or to withdraw with a “W”, is to urge them to realistically assess their current standing as well as their ability (time-wise) and their desire (very important!) to successfully complete enough of the remaining course work to satisfactorily reach a passing letter grade and/or the letter grade they are seeking.

Lorrie