Part of this course involves practicing and improving our professionalism online. That includes basic internet etiquette. I’ve summarized some basic tips here.

1. Respect. As you may have noticed in social media, people often forget to be respectful while online. This course involves real people who are affected by what you right and how you write it. So maybe read it over before sending it to make sure it’s respectful. If you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, then don’t say it online either.
2. Tone. When writing online, strong language, using all caps, and using a lot of exclamation points could be interpreted as a much stronger tone than you intend. Tone is hard to convey accurately online. Even if you intend to be emphatic, use softer methods of doing that. Let’s all work on keeping a friendly tone, eh?
3. Sarcasm & Joking. You will find the instructor using humor in his communications and you are welcome to join in the playful mood. However, jokes and humor that are sarcastic may not be interpreted as friendly as you intend. Try to be clear with your humor, so it’s not misinterpreted as rudeness.
4. Professional Writing. In emails, discussions, and chats, please use proper spelling and grammar typical of professional settings. In other words, write like you would a written letter and not like a text sent to a friend. Your writing style could be informal enough to use an occasional incomplete sentence. Like this. But not this: IKR, ROFL or ?4U
5. Appropriate. I shouldn’t have to say this, but… just don’t share anything illegal or inappropriate or offensive. Not even privately.
6. Coolness. Not everybody will be perfect all the time. Some folks have mighty struggles. Try to be understanding of folks who have difficulty communicating or simply haven’t learned all these tips yet. So be forgiving.
7. Safety. Please respect the privacy of everyone in the course. Anything private shared by individuals in the course, even whether a particular person is enrolled in our course, should be kept within the course. For safety.  And of course we want to maintain a bully-free, tolerant culture in our course.

Click here for a quick orientation to CANVAS