It is indeed a different world. In my Project Management class I asked each person to give me one thing about the class they really liked and one thing that could be improved. Of the 8 participants, I got 5 responses.

To pass the course, each person needed to work on a project using the tools and systems discussed in class. They then needed to give me a Project Charter, a report on the project and do a 5 minute presentation on the project.

All did well. I reviewed each, gave some improvement feedback and passed them all. Of that 6 people have written back to thank me for the course.

One who wrote back was one who never gave me a response to an improvement. She did now. She felt that I should allow some time at the end of class to allow the participants to talk about the class and offer thoughts. I was stunned.

After each segment, I ask about thoughts and any questions. In all of the sessions, not once did she speak up. So ample time was given and she never said anything. Now she said i should allow time, something she never borrowed to use during the classes.

I pointed out that each person had ample opportunity to do so and rarely was that taken by any of the participants. I did not directly point at her, but I assumed she got the message. Maybe a bad assumption.

My wife told me I should point directly at her. I told her no, it was not for me to attack anyone even if they were far off base. I told the class as a PM never to take anything personally. I was upholding what I was teaching.

So how do we deal with such things? If she was my employee I would counsel her for sure. As a student, it is up to her to take the learnings and either apply them or not. That will determine how successful she will be.

Any bets on whether she gets the message or not?