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Do you have a rule of thumb for the student to decide whether the question would be appropriate during the lecture or should be asked in office hours instead? As a student myself, I find some "stupid questions" asked by other students very helpful because they make me realize that I didn't know the answer either, so need to pay more attention
– lucidbrot
Commented Jan 16, 2022 at 13:16
5

@lucidbrot No. I treat every question as appropriate. (I never, never, never respond as if I think a question is stupid.) What's not appropriate is asking so many questions during lecture that it becomes disruptive and likely to annoy others in the class. (My objective is purely to avoid complaints on my course evals that I didn't properly control the class.)
– Nicole Hamilton
Commented Jan 16, 2022 at 14:13
3

Thanks for the reply! I think you slightly misunderstood me though: I was wondering if you had a rule of thumb to tell the disruptive student. Because if a lecturer were to ask me to please ask less questions, without given a clear statement what or how many would be okay, I would probably stop asking any questions at all during the lecture. Unless I was very very certain that it was a good question.
– lucidbrot
Commented Jan 16, 2022 at 14:45
3

@lucidbrot Thankfully, I've only had one such student. I knew it was a problem but didn't take action until after I got complaints on my mid-semester course evals. I talked to the student offline, explained that other students found him disruptive and I agreed, and suggested he try to limit himself to perhaps 2, 3, maybe 4 questions per lecture. I think I might have had to ask publicly once, maybe twice in lecture that he give other students a chance. Problem was solved and students remarked on my final evals that they'd noticed the lectures in the second half were much better.
– Nicole Hamilton
Commented Jan 16, 2022 at 18:14

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