Orientation: Communication Guidelines

To-Do Date: Jan 16 at 11:00am

Communication Channels

  • General announcements will be located in the Announcements section of this Canvas course.
  • Be sure to properly configure your Notification settings to receive timely notifications from Canvas, such as announcements in the point above. You can control your email flow as it suits your preferences with these settings, but remember it is your responsibility to stay up to date with the announcements.

You can contact your instructor via the following channels:

  • Post a question to the discussion board. The forum is monitored, and your instructor will respond within 24 hrs, or 48 hrs during the weekends. Your peers might also have the answers to your questions. If you know how to answer the question, go ahead and make a posting too. You can ask to clarify assignment details, assignment due dates, and your muddy points about new content.
  • Send an email message to 270help@iastate.edu.
  • Schedule a meeting with the instructor via MS Teams Links to an external site..

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Online Presence

In your role as a student, you are in charge of the following:

  • Personal accountability: practice time management and figure out how you learn best. If you need help figuring out these things, try connecting with your peers, ask a classmate to become your study buddy, or contact the instructor. 
  • Following the course's schedule: Become familiar with the way the To Do list works in Canvas Links to an external site. to help you stay organized.

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Netiquette

  • All communication within the course should adhere to university standards of Netiquette at ISU. Specifically, communication should be scholarly, respectful, professional, and polite.
  • You are expected to follow ISU's Principles of Community Links to an external site.
  • As part of the learning process, you are encouraged to disagree with other students, but such disagreements need to be based on facts and documentation. It is my goal to promote an atmosphere of mutual respect in our interactions. Please contact me if you have suggestions for improving the interactions in this course.
  • Professional and respectful tone and civility are used in communicating with fellow learners and the instructor, whether the communication is by electronic means, phone, or face-to-face.
  • Video interactions reflect a respectful tone in verbal communication and body language.
  • Use correct spelling and grammar.

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Group Communication

In this course, you are encouraged to work with your peers to figure out the lab assignments. You may want to work together, set up synchronous calls, participate in group discussions, etc. However, the answers you submit must be your own. This is a very hands-on course and even the memorization portions of the course are easier if you have experienced the activities in the lab with your own hands. Thus, working together to overcome challenges is great, but grades have always been noticeably lower for students who don't engage enough with the lab activities individually.

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