How could 1:1 communication on Socratic be improved? Replying to thanks, notes, or just messaging another person privately ... would you like to be able to do this? Why or why not?

3 Answers
May 22, 2015

I would like to be able to (easily) reference particular questions in notes. I sometimes want to make a suggestion about an answer, but I don't want to embarrass the person who answered by appearing to correct them.
(I am correcting in some cases, but often would prefer to do so privately. Particularly if the answer is well presented and clear to students, but there is an error or misconception that should be addressed.)

May 22, 2015

I have mixed feeling about private messaging.

Judging from the small number of notes I get, I would not expect to be inundated with messages I'd prefer to ignore.

On the other hand the possibility of being so inundated puts me off a bit.

If a more extensive messaging than notes is implemented, I want to be able to somehow control how many messages I get and from whom.

Perhaps by requiring a note first asking permission to send messages, with an option to retract permission, or first message open to anyone, but recipient has the possibility to block future messages from that sender.

I do not like the idea of a "friends" list. The word "friends" has too many connotations for me to be comfortable with. I'd probably be OK with "contacts" or "collaborators". (Although the second suggests an unwillingness to interact with students -- so maybe it's not a good choice.)

Jun 4, 2015

Generally, notes work fine. The problem that I have is that once or twice a week students send me a note asking for an answer to another question. If it is from "Student", I have no way of replying. If it is from someone with an @Name, i can perhaps find their profile page and post a note, but I have no idea which answer prompted the follow up question. I could re-post the question with an answer in the appropriate topic area, but would the student ever see it? Suggestions?