• Make sure you have the technology. We recommend that students use a laptop or desktop to access Blackboard or any other online platform used by the college, particularly to take tests and quizzes. There is a Blackboard app that can be used to access most course materials, videos, readings and collaborate meetings. A webcam and microphone headset are also recommended. Access to stable wifi/internet connection will be needed for testing situations.
• Accept that you’ll have to motivate yourself and take responsibility for your learning. It’s actually harder for some people to sit down at the computer on their own than to show up at a set time. Be sure you have enough time in your week for all course activities and try to schedule regular times online and for assignments. Evaluate the course requirements carefully before signing up.
• Work on your writing skills. If you are not comfortable writing, you may want to defer taking online courses until you have had more experience with college-level writing. When communicating with the professor of an online course, follow the guidelines for effective e-mail outlined earlier.
• Use critical thinking skills. Most online courses involve assignments requiring problem solving and critical thinking. It’s not as simple as watching video lectures and taking multiple-choice tests. You need to actively engage with the course material.
• Take the initiative to ask questions and seek help. Remember, your professor can’t see you to know if you’re confused or feeling frustrated understanding a lecture or reading. You must take the first step to communicate your questions.
• Be patient. When you ask a question or seek help with an assignment, you have to wait for a reply from your professor. You may need to continue with a reading or writing assignment before you receive a reply. If the professor is online at scheduled times for direct contact, take advantage of those times for immediate feedback and answers.
• Use any opportunity to interact with other students in the course. If you can interact with other students online, do it. Ask questions of other students and monitor their communications. If you know another person taking the same course, try to synchronize your schedules so that you can study together and talk over assignments. Students who feel they are part of a learning community always do better than those who feel isolated and on their own.

Participating in Online Classes and Meetings

You will likely have opportunities to participate in live classes or meetings with your Professors and fellow classmates. This might be to have a discussion, meet as a group to work on a project, or a live class for a test or unit review. The two common methods for live classes at St. Clair are through Blackboard Collaborate and Microsoft Teams. For each of these, there are software and hardware considerations as well as technical knowledge needed as you will need to set up your device to run these programs and set up your video and audio. You should test these before your first meeting or class.

Tips for Online Meetings:

• Use a headset and microphone – this will offer you a better experience and will also ensure that background noises at your location are minimized for others.
• Join the session early to set up your video and audio and test your connection.
• Keep your microphone muted when you are not speaking.
• Position your webcam so that your face is centered top to bottom and left to right. Look straight at the camera, not from above or below.
• Sit at a desk or table, rather than lying in bed or sitting on a couch.
• Wear what you would like to a face-to-face class but avoid green shirts and stripes.
• Sit with your back against a wall when using your webcam to minimize the view others have of your surroundings. Alternately, you can use “blur” to fade out your background.
• Generally, having a sip of a drink is acceptable when your video is on, but eating should be avoided.

Online Etiquette

General rules

• Demonstrate respectful behaviour. Be mindful that everyone comes from different backgrounds, has different experiences and the right to express their opinions whether you agree with them or not. Make sure you always follow the golden rule and treat everyone the same way you expected to be treated.
• Respect others’ privacy. Do not forward emails or share posts outside of the discussion forms without getting permission from the original sender or poster.
• Be forgiving. Remember that not everyone will know proper online etiquette rules right away. Try to be patient and understanding.
• Pick the right tone for your writing for chats and discussion posts. Keep in mind that the meaning being communicated through written words can easily be misinterpreted. Emotions such as sarcasm or humour may be hard to detect and be misconstrued as offensive rather than funny. Try to maintain a formal, neutral, and respectful tone when communicating with others.

A light-hearted look at online meetings

How will you go to class in an online course?

How is a professor’s role different in an online course?

What is the role of your professor in an online course?  Your online professor provides the teaching presence to design significant learning experiences for you and your fellow students.  Professors also thoughtfully facilitate the content that will support your learning in the class. They also direct you by answering questions and challenging your assumptions to help you grow in your knowledge and skills. Online professor roles: design, facilitation, and direction

In online classrooms, your professor takes on the following roles:

Designer:  In a museum, a curator locates the best artifacts to create an effective experience for those who visit. In an online learning environment, your professors take on the role like that of a curator as they design the course.  They will guide you towards readings and other learning materials that will serve your learning goals.  Based on their experience in their field, they are able to help you focus your attention on learning resources that are accurate and relevant.

Facilitator:  Your professor carefully creates opportunities for you to learn the skills you need for your future career, and designs assignments and learning activities to lead you towards intellectual, personal, and professional growth. As you review the course presentation, consider each of the learning activities and assignments.  Think about the reasons why your professor may have selected these course components to contribute to your development.

Director: Online professors are available to answer questions along the way. As you learn, you will inevitably find areas that are unclear to you, either related to the course content or your learning process.  By communicating with your professor effectively, you will take full advantage of their role in guiding you on your journey.

This material was adapted from Learning to Learn Online (2018) by Page and Vincent, Kwantien Polytechnic University Centre under a Creative Commons By Share-alike license.

Online Discussions: Tips for Students

Online discussions can help you prepare for class, learn discussion skills, practice your writing skills, and learn from others. To be successful, you need to translate your face-to-face discussion skills to the online environment. Remember that online discussions are first and foremost dialogues, not writing assignments. The following tips highlight key features of effective online discussion strategies, whether for discussion groups or live chats.

Writing a post

Develop a position, argument, or question: After you’ve done the required reading or task, think of a position and how to support it, then read the other postings and see how they support or contradict your idea, and write about this. Another strategy is to look for postings that lack evidence and probe for some. You can also turn your thoughts into questions or play devil’s advocate. Remember, though, that opinions aren’t arguments. Be sure to support what you say with references to course materials or outside sources, such as readings.

Use keywords in your title: Online discussions can generate a number of messages, so you need to consider efficient ways to make your contributions. To help the other participants quickly understand what your post is about, be sure that your title clearly indicates the content that will follow. “My ideas about today’s readings” isn’t nearly as clear as “My opinion on Freud’s theory of mourning and melancholia.” Your title could even summarize the opinion, argument, or question that you raise, like in the following: “Freud’s theory of mourning and melancholia: A false divide.”

Encourage discussion: If you’re the first to post, strive to encourage discussion. Get others thinking (and writing) by making bold statements or including open-ended questions in your message. Those who post first are most often responded to and cited by others. Remember to check back and see if and how others have responded to your ideas.

Make postings short, clear, and purposeful: In general, write one to two meaningful paragraphs because long messages are difficult to read online. Another rule of thumb is to make only one main point in each posting, supported by evidence and/or an example. Be concise (Vonderwell, 2003).

Your stance need not be forever: It can be intimidating to take a stand on an issue at times, especially when you put it in writing, which we associate with permanence. Remember that you are allowed to change your mind! Simply indicate that with the new information raised in the discussion, you have changed your stance. Learning is about change.

Other practical considerations for discussion board postings

It can be frustrating to read through a busy discussion forum with lots of posts and replies. Make sure to create new threads if new topics evolve in the discussion. Subscribing to receive email alerts of new postings can help participants keep up with a conversation without checking back into the discussion forum repeatedly. You can configure the tool to receive alerts whenever a new post appears or receive a daily summary of the posts.

Responding to other posts

Make the context clear 

An informative title will help, but also consider including in your reply a quotation from the original message that you’re responding to. If the original message is lengthy, cut out what is not relevant to your response. And if the original has many paragraphs, you could place your comments between the paragraphs to give readers the context for your ideas (Vonderwell, 2003).

Add value to the conversation 

Saying “I agree” does not move the discussion forward. Ask yourself why you agree and explain your rationale so that others have something else to respond to (Vonderwell, 2003).

Ask probing questions; consider using the following questions when trying to extend a discussion:

• What reasons do you have for saying that?
• Why do you agree (or disagree) on that point?
• How are you defining the term that you just used?
• What do you mean by that expression?
• Could you clarify that remark?
• What follows from what you just said?
• What alternatives are there to such a formulation? (Roper, 2007)

Feel free to disagree with your classmates 

To air different perspectives or help others clarify their thinking, you may need to contradict a classmate. Remember to disagree respectfully (no name-calling or obscenities) and support your point with evidence, but do not feel bad about offering a different interpretation. Your contribution should help to make the discussion more productive for all involved.

Work to create group cohesion 

Discussions are about group learning. When you function well as a group, you will be more open to all the benefits that this type of learning can offer. Give positive feedback to one another, use light humour, avoid comments that could be taken as insulting, use first names, respond promptly to each other, and offer assistance. Also remember the lack of nonverbal and vocal cues in the online environment. You’ll need to label emotions (e.g., “I’m confused about this” or “I feel strongly”) because no one will pick up on how you feel otherwise.

Be aware when postings prompt emotional responses

If you feel very emotional about a message, wait before responding. It’s very easy to write something in the heat of the moment and then wish you could retract it. If you send it to the discussion, the damage is done. Even waiting overnight can give you enough distance to respond in a calmer and more professional manner.

Developing a positive perspective

• Engaging in online chats: Like Twitter in the classroom, online chats can provide an opportunity to ask questions or make comments during an online lecture. Try to make your comments concise and clear.
• Remember to be respectful and professional: don’t write anything that you wouldn’t speak in class. Also, avoid clogging up the chat with links to extraneous resources.
• Stay focused and aim to add value to the class experience.
• Be open to new ideas: Discussion is about hearing what others have to say and working to shape and re-shape your own thoughts and perspectives. Different perspectives can further everyone’s understanding of the issue or concept being discussed—they represent opportunities for learning.
• Enjoy yourself: The online environment comes with many benefits, including learning from your peers in addition to your instructor. Use the time productively to hone lifelong skills and refine your ideas about the course content.

Participating in Online Discussions Self Check

Tips for online group projects

Group projects are an important part of the learning process. Working in groups with classmates helps to build collaboration, empathy, and problem-solving skills. Group projects can be a positive, rewarding and enjoyable experience for all those involved if everyone is willing put in equal effort and do their part.

The same rules and effort should be applied to online group projects as in-class. Everyone needs to contribute to the project whether they are working online or in-class. However, there are some additional complications to working online that don’t occur with in-class projects. For example, you may not have the opportunity to officially meet your group members or get to know them, especially if you are taking online classes and live in different places. This makes it difficult working in a group settling especially when it comes to arranging a time that is convenient for everyone to connect and work on the project together.

Here are some tips to help you successfully work and complete online group projects with classmates.

To begin

Connect with your group members and introduce yourself. Once your professor arranges and shares with you the group topic and members you will be working with, introduce yourself to them. Most likely you will be provided with an email address or your professor may setup a group forum on Blackboard, MS Teams or any other online platform used by the college for you to communicate with your group member. Take this opportunity to let your group members know you are excited to get started and looking forward to working with them. This will help to break the ice.

If it possible to arrange a group chat, whether it is through a conference call, text message or video chat with your classmates, do it as this will make it easier to organize and to distribute the tasks evenly amongst everyone based on their interests and individual strengths.

At your first meeting

• Discuss the overall purpose of the project with your group members to make sure everyone understands what needs to be done and is on the same page.
• If there is confusion about what the project entails, seek clarification from your professor.
• Choose a leader for the group, someone who is organized and will keep everyone on task or agree to rotate the role of leader.

Planning process

• Identify the tasks and roles required for the completion of the project.
• Determine which group member is doing what task and role.
• Set deadlines for everyone to complete their portion of the project.
• Setup regular group check-ins for everyone to connect and discuss the progress or issues that have come up such as group members doing their tasks.

Working through conflict

• Don’t be afraid to bring up issues or friction between members in the group in a meeting as this may help to demystify any conflicts.
• If needed, contact your professor and let them know of any conflict or lack of communication with any group members.
• Remember everyone has their own opinions, views and works at their own pace.
• Try to maintain a calm, respectful and cordial attitude with all group members. It is okay if you do not like everyone, but you do still have to work with them.

Enjoy your experience as much as possible. If you are open, you can come away with some great friendships.

Acknowledgements

This chapter was adapted from the materials provided by Kimberly Daigneau. Daigneau’s thorough research and the additional resources she shared played a vital role in shaping the depth and quality of this chapter. Her dedication and attention to detail were invaluable in making this content comprehensive and insightful.

References

Key Takeaways

• Online learning offers both enjoyment and challenges. While it provides flexibility, it also demands self-discipline and motivation to stay on track.
• Online students can set their schedules but must take responsibility for adhering to it and completing their work.
• Online learners must exercise critical thinking, take initiative to seek assistance, and actively participate in discussions, group projects, and assignments.