I have found the Rubric at times to be a double edged sword where as it can gives structure to quantitative feedback, but for those students who are detailed savvy, the rubric may not be detailed enough to satisfy those students who may want more granularity in the grading process.

One lesson I have learned is never engage an (on-line) student immediately after he/she has done something antagonistic in front of the class. All it takes is on bad episode to spiral out of control as from a on-line facilitation perspective, it is extremely tough to put the genie back in the bottle again :-) My recommendation (if this occurs in an online class): (1) Whatever response you make, ensure you had ample time to think about both the content and medium (2) Go private - Resist the temptation to let everyone know who is the boss

I'm not so sure one needs a protocol or standards of communication excellence if one just uses common sense and courtesy. If one can virtually imagine that person being face to face, a lot of the illicit communications behavior would naturally fade away.

This first module has opened up my eyes with regards to facititators choosing the correct communications media to interact with their students. We tend to overuse email and not stress other more intimate means of communicating with students.