I guess my first question should actually be, how long is a reasonable amount of time to wait for a response to an email?

I am currently in the first class for my Masters and it is the 3rd online class that I have had.  It is very similar to the online classes I had for my bachelors at a different university.  In all of these classes, the professor doesn't have a huge presence on the discussion forums.  The professor mostly updates us with weekly assignments and grades our work.  And of course should be available to answer questions from email or the professors forum on the discussion boards.  In my 2 undergrad classes, the professors responded to my emails within 1 day.  I am not the type who has a need to send a lot of emails to the professors, but issues/questions do come up from time to time.

So far I have posted a question to the professors forum as well as sent an email to the professor with no response.  I have also emailed my advisor and not received a response yet.  It has been several days, but not even a week yet.  Am I just being impatient?

Another reason I might be irritable to this situation is that it seems the responses I, and other students, are receiving seem to be done very quickly.  This is just the impression that I get, I have no way to really know.  But for example, a question was posted for the professor and when he finally got around to answering it, his answer contradicted what our assignment specifically required.  Also, I sent an email to my advisor and received a quick response, but I believe it gave me some incorrect information as if the advisor did not carefully read my email.  I responded to that email and haven't heard back yet.

What do you think?

How long has it been exactly?  I've had to wait up to a week at times, which can be frustrating I know.

Well it has been 5 days on the professor email and 6 on the advisor.  The advisor question wasn't really pressing so I probably should be more patient with that, as long as I do eventually get a response.  With the professor, the problem is that if I have a question about an assignment or something, we only have a week from the point of having the assignment available to the due date so students really need a timely response.

yankeeRacers:

Well it has been 5 days on the professor email and 6 on the advisor.

I think that's totally unacceptable regardless of whether your issue was urgent or not!  Your instructor should be able to respond to assignment-related inquiries within twenty-four hours, maybe longer on a weekend, but not more than forty-eight hours in any event.  Your advisor should be able to respond to you no later than the next business day even if they have to go to someone else to get the answer you need.

Based on your description, I think you're being jerked around.  If I were in your situation, I would complain, and I'd go high up to do so.

-=Steve=-

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B.S., Info Sys, Charter Oak State College
M.A., Educational Tech Leadership, George Washington University
Doctor of Health Education, A.T. Still University, in progress

Who is the appropriate person to send such a complaint to?  You don't think I should bring the issue up directly with my professor and advisor first?

When I had the issue I complained to my professor.  Only once did I go higher than that and I followed the formal procedures for lodging a complaint at that time which was in my student handbook.  Does your school have such a process?

I don't know why I didn't think of that!  I looked up the policy in the my student handbook and they recommend working things out directly with the professor first and if that doesn't work I can file a complaint with my academic advisor.  This gave me a funny image of filing a complaint about my advisor to my advisor himself.

 

I am sure its quite common (It's been an issue for you at least twice).  I would hate to see how many emails these people get every day.  So, as crummy as it is for them to ignore my emails, I do sympathize with them greatly.  I may look into the possibility of switching advisors.  I can't imagine having this same advisor during my entire program.

There are also things to consider such as maybe your emails are hitting the spam filter, maybe the emails don't contain the proper subject fields (happened to me once) or it could be simple human error, we all make mistakes.  As a professional the professor or advisor should take your complaint as an improvement opportunity and not personally.  I think the policy assumes professionalism on the part of their staff, and rightfully so.

yankeeRacers:

I don't know why I didn't think of that!  I looked up the policy in the my student handbook and they recommend working things out directly with the professor first and if that doesn't work I can file a complaint with my academic advisor.  This gave me a funny image of filing a complaint about my advisor to my advisor himself.

Exactly -- those guidelines are for their convenience, not yours.

I am sure its quite common (It's been an issue for you at least twice).  I would hate to see how many emails these people get every day.  So, as crummy as it is for them to ignore my emails, I do sympathize with them greatly.  I may look into the possibility of switching advisors.  I can't imagine having this same advisor during my entire program.

It's nice of you to be so understanding, but at the same time you're the one paying their salaries, and you are being ignored.  I've worked for three different schools, and at none of them would it have been acceptable to sit on a student's request for help for a week.  I'll stand by what I said about going up the ladder to get answers.

-=Steve=-

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B.S., Info Sys, Charter Oak State College
M.A., Educational Tech Leadership, George Washington University
Doctor of Health Education, A.T. Still University, in progress

I think that is the downside of online learning, you need answers and sometimes you need them right away.  Problem is, they can take quite a while to respond.  I agree with the others, go through the protocol and offer a complaint and concern. U are investing tens of thousands of dollars to get a quality education.  I am all about getting what i can from the money I put into something.