Communicating in Online Discussion Boards

As part of an educational community of learners, all participants, including local administrators, teachers, and students, must agree to a set of guidelines and standards for online behaviour. These guidelines are designed to protect participants, as well as to ensure that the online environment is used strictly for educational purposes.

Items within the Acceptable Use Policy fall into the following categories:

Account Integrity

You, the user, are responsible for your own account, including discussion notes, file transfers, or any other data you transmit. Do notlet anyone else know your ID and password.

Account Integrity Guidelines:

• Change your password when you first log in.
• Change your password frequently.
• Use punctuation, numbers, and characters within your password.
• Pick a password that others will find difficult to decode (i.e. not your nickname, middle name, birth date, pet’s name, etc.).
• Use at least six characters in your password.
• Do not tell anyone what your password is.
• Never leave a note with your password near your computer.

Check with your school if you are unsure of your user account guidelines.

Also note that it’s a good idea to save an electronic version of all assignments that you send using the course dropbox. Save a marked pdf file to the same file. This ensures you have your work at all times and will provide a useful back up in case of any discrepancies. Check with your school for procedures about how to submit assignments.

Netiquette

Netiquette refers to behaviour online, and is very important in public and educational systems.

Every participant using the delivery system must be treated with respect. The online discussions are open to all members of your class, and the messages you post to those discussions reflect your personality and behaviour.

Behavior Guidelines:

• Avoid humour and sarcasm—they do not read well in this online medium and can be offensive to others.
• Messages can seem unintentionally blunt or terse. Using closing salutations (such as “cheers” or “bye for now”) to help make your messages friendlier.
• Participants include many people of different genders, cultures, ages, ability, religions, and experiences. Be sensitive to the feelings of others in this diverse delivery environment.
• Swearing, offensive language, and harassment of another person will not be tolerated.