Educational theorists have recently come to put a great deal of emphasis on the importance of learning as a social and cultural process. This is no less important to online learning, which should and often does create a virtual community of learners. Some students even find more of a community online, where shy users are more likely to speak up and the students have more freedom to talk amongst themselves.
Write Carefully
You do not have to be Ernest Hemingway, but you will be better read and better understood if you put time and attention into your discussion or chat posts.
- Write in complete and logical sentences.
- Use correct spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation.
- If you have trouble spelling, you might want to compose your messages in a word processor and run a spell check, then cut and paste them into the discussion.
- Do not write entirely in capital letters. Some users do this if they are not used to typing, but writing in all-caps gives some people the impression you are shouting and it can be hard to read lengthy posts entirely in capital letters.
- Be brief and to the point. Avoid lengthy or detailed posts; most users will skim or skip overly long posts.
Use an Appropriate Tone
Different classes will have different cultures, but the verbal style used in online discussions generally will be less formal than the style used in papers and more formal than the one used in a chat in the hallway. Some people call the in-between tone of an online community "Say-Writing."
- You should state and support your positions, but refrain from trying to overwhelm everyone with the force of your argument. For one thing, long posts will be simply skimmed or skipped by many readers who are pressed for time. Also, very detailed, argumentative, or formal posts can intimidate other members of the community.
- Don't be afraid of making a joke, a sideline comment, or an observation that is not completely relevant--these touches of humor and humanness can make a community warm and comfortable for everyone. However, you should avoid making a joke in every post, or veering wildly off-topic.
- Let other users know that you have read and appreciate their posts. You can observe many visual cues in a classroom that indicate people are listening to you carefully, but you can't do so in an online community, so you must provide these in writing. If you write "I agree with Ken's position," or "I understand where Sarah is coming from, but...." instead of just jumping in with your own thoughts, Ken and Sarah (and everyone else) know it is a real discussion and not a series of monologues.
Behave as You Would in a Classroom
Most of the rules for general classroom participation are the same in an online course.
- Be yourself. Do not attempt to be overly formal, overly persuasive, or overly eager to belong.
- Share. Sharing requires both expressing your own feelings and experiences, but also reading and appreciating the feelings and experiences of others.
- Be willing to accept the views of others, even if they have quite different backgrounds or positions, are not as knowledgeable or capable of expressing themselves in writing, or seem to break some of the rules of netiquette.
- Don't be afraid to express your feelings or to ask for help if you are upset by or confused about a topic.
- One experienced online community member listed being "intellectually honest" as the most important piece of advice she would give to participants in an online community. This means you should be able to look at issues from other perspectives, to make decisions based on facts and logic rather than emotion, and to constantly consider and reconsider your position and be willing to change your mind when necessary.