Digital Etiquette For Dummies - Eric Butow

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focused. This is advice for both instructors and students. Staying focused means making brief points about the topic under discussion. If some of the points aren’t clear, people will let you know and you can elaborate. Even then, keep your responses as short as possible so as not to annoy your instructor and classmates.

       Be as respectful online as you would be in the classroom. The rule is simple: If you wouldn’t say something to someone’s face, don’t say it online. Use your instructor’s proper title or the title the instructor prefers. Don’t trash classmates’ opinions online, not just because it’s the right thing to do but also because the instructor can still discipline you as though you were in a real classroom.

      Teachers: Presenting information to students

      If you’re a teacher and you’ve read the previous section, you’ve probably also taken some notes about which topics to discuss with your students.

      Eric talked with a friend of his, Anthony Barcellos, who is a math instructor at American River College in Sacramento, California. Barcellos noted that teacher/student communication is often intergenerational. “Teachers tend to have much less experience in digital communications than their students,” he said.

      With that in mind, the following sections present some other important things to know about communicating with students.

      Be clear

      Be upfront with your students about the rules. Here are some ideas to get you started:

       Tell students how to correctly use the chat box if you use an online chat app, like Zoom. Students can easily just start chatting privately with others about other topics and not pay attention to you and the lesson. If you’re concerned that your students will just ignore the chat box rule, meeting apps allow you, as the meeting host, to turn off the chat box. What’s more, if you’re fortunate enough to have a teaching assistant or peer tutor associated with your class sessions, they can be useful in moderating the chat box while you’re presenting the subject matter.

       Students need to use their real names. It’s part of common courtesy.

       Speaking of common courtesy, remind people that they should be as courteous as they would be in person. That means the “please and thank you” rule still applies.

       Point out the I Agree button and any other quick-response buttons in the virtual classroom app you’re using. That way, people can respond quickly without having to type out the response.

       Point out the Virtual Hand icon so that your students can raise their hands and ask a question in your virtual classroom app. If you’re using a general purpose virtual chat app, like Zoom, be sure to mute everyone before the meeting starts.

       Let your students know that you’ll start on time, just as you would in an in-person classroom. That way, students know that they need to get rid of their distractions (like smartphones) before they arrive, log in before class starts, and be ready to work. (We agree that it’s a good sign that students are waiting for you when you log in.)

       Tell students how you communicate, such as your email address and/or a link on your learning management system (LMS). And be clear when students should expect a response, such as on a Monday if a student sends a message on a weekend. Barcellos also noted that you need to cross-link your communication systems so that you receive messages right away, such as forwarding LMS messages to your email inbox. (If you're not sure how to do that, call on your institution's technical support staff.) “Teachers have a responsibility to be attentive to students, and not to ignore their requests for help,” he added.

      

Barcellos says that it isn’t a good idea to “dumb down” discourse with students. “Teachers have a responsibility to be clear and understandable,” he asserted, “but that merely suggests avoiding overwrought vocabulary and taking care to define any technical terms that need to be used in a class. After all, learning those terms will be part of what’s supposed to occur.” Barcellos added that modeling formal usage pays dividends to students who master it. “Don’t try to be someone other than yourself.”

      Use acronyms wisely

      Resist the urge to use acronyms until you establish their meaning with your students. For example, if you use LOL, some people may not think it means “laugh out loud.” We have heard stories of people who think LOL means “lots of love,” which has caused some awkward situations.

      That may be hilarious to read about, but if it happens to you in your class, it may not be so funny. So, spell out the acronym, tell the students what the acronym is, and then you can use it later. Some (or all) of your students may virtually roll their eyes (or send you the appropriate rolling-eyes emoji), but your mind will soothe your bruised ego because you don’t have to clean up any confusion you may cause.

      Barcellos pointed out that it’s unrealistic to expect students to maintain formal writing standards on discussion boards, such as the ones you can find in learning management systems, where students interact with each other. “Let them speak in their native digital language(s),” he said. “Students will feel more welcome to express themselves and a lot more will be said.”

      

In a discussion board or an online forum about the class, you need to keep close tabs on the discussion to make sure it’s appropriate to the task or assignment — as much as you can, anyway. Check the protocols adopted by your institution.

      Follow the submission rules

      We’ve broken out submitting assignments into a separate section because it warrants special attention. Many virtual classroom apps have features that allow students to submit their assignments within the app, and you have probably gnashed a few teeth as you set up the submission function for your students.

      No matter whether you set up assignment submission on a virtual classroom app or require your students to submit assignments via email, be clear about how to do it. (Apps may require a second explanation in plain English by the instructor.) Ensure that students understand that they need to put their name on the assignment and add the correct Subject line.

      

You may want the first class assignment to be as simple as instructing students to send you a message in the app or by email (or both) with the student’s name and the correct Subject line. Anything else you want the student to include in a message is up to you.

      If you expect your students to submit attachments with those messages, provide specific instructions such as the type of format for documents. Common formats include Microsoft Word and Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF).

      

Make sure the formats are as pain-free to create as possible. Most students can create files in Word or Google Docs, but creating a PDF file can be tricky for some. For certain classes, like math, you may want to have students take photos of written pages with their phones and upload them.

      Kids: Being flexible for kid behavior

      Even if you’re not a teacher, you may have contact with kids who need advice and guidance about how to communicate online. You may have kids of your own like Kelly. You may have nieces and nephews like Kendra. Or you may have a more curious situation, like Eric, where you sometimes have older daycare kids who are being kept home for safety reasons but need to connect online to keep up their studies.

      The COVID-19 pandemic made schooling online

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