Write as if you were writing a term paper. Use Proper Writing Style: This is a must. Don’t lose yourself, or your readers, in overly wordy sentences or paragraphs. Acknowledge the points made with which you agree and suggest alternatives for those with which you don’t.īe Brief: You want to be clear-and to articulate your point-without being preachy or pompous.

This will help you avoid repeating something someone else has already contributed. They’re really going to appreciate it!īe Patient: Read everything in the discussion thread before replying.

Help Others: You may have more experience with online discussion forums than the person next to you. Chances are others are having the same problem. If for any reason you experience difficulty participating, please call, email, or otherwise inform me of the issue. Report Glitches : Discussion forums are electronic. For the maximum benefit to all, everyone must contribute. It is not enough to login and read the discussion thread of others. Participate: This is a shared learning environment. Notice that most of them are just as applicable in face-to-face discussions. To counteract that shift, to raise general awareness, and to assist you in enhancing the learning experience of your students, here are a dozen online discussion rules to include in your syllabus. It’s impossible to replicate these in an online environment. In face-to-face discussions these clues contribute a lot of nonverbal nuances of meaning carrying an intangible amount of weight. There is a problem, though: the absence of visual and auditory clues. The basic premise is that the etiquette expected of your students in online discussions is the same as that which you expect in a classroom. Unregulated, an online discussion can quickly disintegrate into a tangled web of extraneous verbiage, rude language, and inconsiderate behavior guaranteed to derail the conversation. As more and more classes include online discussion components, it becomes more and more important for instructors to understand the rules of etiquette that, when followed, help make the individual postings easy to follow, keep the conversation thread focused, and the overall discussion on-track.

Netiquette rules for online classes