The ground rules and etiquette for online students
Ground rules for everyone's benefit:
- Be constructive and productive
- Do not gripe or whine
- Ask questions
- Contribute replies
- Expect to be misunderstood
- Don't take things personally
- Be supportive
General guidelines for users:
- Keep your posts short--one to two paragraphs.
- Keep one topic/question per post--don't mix topics.
- Let's focus on learning how the tools work--not how they could work.
- Avoid side dialogue within the topics.
- Focus on coming up with how the tools presented can work for you.
- It is normal to feel lost. ASK, don't assume.
Etiquette (These were borrowed and adapted from Vivie Sinou, CEO of ETUDES):
- Be respectful of everyone--be aware of what you write, and that because there are no facial expressions nor tone of voice things can be taken the wrong way.
- Do not write in all capitals--this is considered SHOUTING
- Do not belittle your classmates' opinions/ideas, even if they're wrong and you're right. It is OK to disagree in a polite and constructive way.
- Please do not expect immediate responses to questions--just because this is an online experience does not mean that fellow students and/or the facilitators are always online and available. (You'll see what this means when you teach online yourself!) All questions will be answered within 24-48 hours unless it is a weekend; then questions will be answered on Monday. Actually, they'll probably be answered on the weekend too, but nobody is making promises.