Any advice on ending lectures early by agreement?

[MassiveTit]

Someone talk me down please...I taught two modules this year on a one day masters. One was timetabled 9.30 to 12.30 and one 4 to 6. With agreement from the students, we had no break on the 4 to 6 module and would end around 5.40. I would always come early (they had a break 30 minutes beforehand) for any chat or Q&A and start the lecture bang on 4pm. It was a new module (for me) and I tend to be quite fast at getting through slides so had to add additional content. Student feedback was excellent and all did well in their first assessment.

One student was tricky and as the term progressed was clearly having psychiatric and family issues. I did support him and put him in contact with student services.

He has now withdrawn and is making a formal complaint about me ending early so he can get a full refund on fees because we did not provide the service he paid for. He has engaged a solicitor.

What can I do? Is this the sort of thing that gets a formal disciplinary?

I know its hard not to worry, it sounds like a student issue and not a you issue. You've covered the learning outcomes, students had content and support. I regularly have 2 hour lectures and give a 15 minute break (which usually turns into 20 minutes by the time everyone is settled). Your break just happened to be at the end of the session.

Do you have a programme chairperson for the masters- they would be first port of call, as well as your head of school/faculty. Best to keep them in the loop. One thing I've realised is that our worry or issue is generally something they've seen or dealt with many times before. If you have any emails from the class about the 4-6 slot, pop them into a separate folder on your email, and you also have the excellent feedback. One unsatisfied person won't stack up against an overwhelming body of happy students who took the masters.

Take care and remember all of the satisfied students who enjoyed learning from you

I'd be astounded if this goes anywhere. I had a new module this year and finished early a couple of times - better to finish early than not be able to finish the material.

Are your department supporting you? I know mine would.

We start lectures on the hour and finish at 10 to the hour. We give a 10 minute break for a 2 hour lecture. I assume you are the same?

I generally ask the students which they would prefer - go straight through and finish early or have a break. They usually prefer a break as they have another lecture just before mine. However, some years the choose to go straight through. Inevitably, there is at least one student who complains in the module feedback that there is no break.

Basically, ignore. There is absolutely no way complaining a lecturer only covered 100 minutes in a 2 hour slot instead of covering 2 x 50 minutes in a 2 hour slot will be taken seriously.

Thanks everyone, this makes me feel a lot better. Student feedback from the module was excellent and predictably this student who complained was happy until he got lower marks than he expected.

He's going through everything I did with a fine tooth comb and taking things out of context so I think it is going to be a hard bit of time.

My department's attitude is to try not to worry so I think it will be okay but it's just a horrible feeling - for example, he's said I made them finish early to get a train. What I said was, it's a long day, I have a train to catch as well!!

I guess it's a lesson on being scrupulous with the rules even if it's ridiculous.

If I understood what you have written correctly, he was only missing out on five minutes of lecture time. Plus, this is one module out of several. It hardly warrants a full refund of tuition fees.

Letting them know that finishing early had a direct benefit to you rather than just them probably wasn’t wise, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I understand what you have done but I certainly would have really struggled without a break, an hour and 40 minutes is too long to concentrate with time to digest especially as you say you move fast through the material.

That said I would have complained the first week. Lectures have breaks for a reason. My exh's institution enforce the breaks, even if students request early finish because they learn better with them. They have had lecturers trying to leave early too, but their contract say lectures can be til 6.

Bloody hell I finish a lot of my lectures/seminars early. I only teach small groups of about 30 so make them fairly interactive and encourage discussion. So how long they take will depend how chatty the students are. If we finish early I always say they can go and read x on the subject. Your situation sounds like a student grasping at straws and I can’t imagine they’ll get anywhere. 🤷‍♀️. I assume if he’d wanted to stay behind and ask stuff you’d have stayed?