A Personalized Automated Email Tool to Connect Faculty with Students in Large STEM Courses

Abstract

Undergraduate student success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors often hinges on the satisfactory completion of large gateway introductory courses such as general chemistry. First-year or transfer students’ achievement in such courses may be affected by their first exposure to the large class format. Specifically, a sense of belonging, a factor shown to be important for student engagement and effort in STEM classes, may be difficult to attain in large classes. We report here on the development and implementation of a personalized, automated email tool as a way for instructors to connect with students, signal their concern for students’ performance, and offer them support. Instructors across the two-semester sequence in a large university general chemistry course used a spreadsheet to sort students into email categories based on their exam performance, differentiating by degree of grade improvement or decline. The corresponding messages offered advice, encouragement, or cautions and invited students to avail themselves of various resources. The emails were sent batchwise but personalized using a Google script function. In an end-of-course survey, students indicated that the emails made them feel the instructor cared, helped support and encourage them, lessened their feelings of anonymity, and helped them improve. This tool provides an easy way for instructors to create a sense of connection and caring in a large class and contribute positively to students’ motivation and achievement.