Strategies for Creating a Valuable Online Presence
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Member Profile or Homepage
If it is available in your online course site, fill out your member profile or student homepage at the start of your course. This is a great way of introducing yourself to classmates. |
TIP
Additional Netiquette Resources
After completing the Online Learning Essentials, develop your own netiquette rules to help you succeed in your online course.
Participants are strongly encouraged to create a valuable presence in the class.
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Active Participation
Take an active role in discussions. This is a terrific way to communicate, engage and learn, and certainly helps enhance the collaborative relationships that you may want to keep after the close of your course. |
General Netiquette
- Remember that there is real person on the other end reading your communication. Be kind.
- Caps means shouting online. Don't write in all caps unless you intend for your reader to interpret your message as emphatic and loud.
- Respect people's privacy. If you would like to forward or publicly post a message, be sure to get the author's permission first.
- Compress, or zip files, that are larger than 3MB because many mail servers do not accept larger attachments. Additionally, if you send large files via email, you can clog in-boxes so that other messages aren't sent or received.
- To find out about the size of a large file, right click on the file name and scroll down to Properties.
- To download free zipping software, visit Winzip.
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Email Netiquette
- Don't write long emails. These long messages become tedious for the reader. If you have to share a lot of information, do it by way of attachment or use formatting tools such as color, font changes, and style changes to highlight the key ideas.
- Remember to compress, or zip, all large attachment files or documents.
- Only "CC" classmates when it is necessary. Using the CC tool helps to streamline collaborative efforts.
- Fill in the Subject Line wisely. Brief, but clear headers can help sort emails and locate past messages quickly.
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Discussion Netiquette
- Be aware of where you are posting your messages. Threads, or replies to previous postings, can get tangled and hard to follow if people post carelessly.
- Change the Subject Line in a discussion post to show the main topic of the message. In threaded discussions, when the collaboration is long, the subject line can be crucial when searching for specific message content.
- If you want to include supplementary materials in your posting, use the attachment feature. Some discussion tools allow for single attachments and others allow for multiple attachments. If you can only attach one item at a time, be sure the Subject Line details how the posts go together.
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