It is important to understand generational roles because each generation has their own way of communicating. Some are more in to technology and others prefer not to use technology at all and they may even resent technology. It is also very important to understand the differences in how they do things because you can have a diverse group of people in the classroom that comes from many different generational times. One must be open minded and respectful of the differences that can occur. Sharon

The two most important considerations when developing a pattern of communication would be ensuring the communication is effective for all and also looking at the desired end result and then designing how to achieve it. Communication is no good without it being effective and effectively communicating is the key to success in all parts of our lives. We can model this to our students and then it will help the desired results of overall effective communication. Sharon

It is essential to create opportunities for students to communicate together in the online environment. Discussion threads are a great way to start. It is also good to encourage students to network and build a rapport with each other while in the online environment, many of them will be in the same classes together at different opportunities. When designing their communication opportunities, be especially concerned with: 1. The overall goal and objectives 2. How often communication needs to occur 3. Specific guidelines for expectations of the communication for and with each other. Considering these different areas to cover will assist a person in correctly designing the online communication that is wished to achieve and the students might even enjoy the overall process. Sharon

To appropriately evaluate work performance across several areas.

Difference generations respond differently to lecture, rules, and feedback.

Follow-up and communication patterns.

Student engagement, time, and usability.

Blogging is a great educational tool because it gives online students the opportunity to express their opinions, thoughts, and facts by means of a technology tool that is easy to use. They can be accessed anytime, and anywhere as long as you have internet access. Blogs can also be great technical tool for teachers to use in order to create classroom activities that extend beyond the traditional four walls of a school building.

The "six degrees of separation" in social networking simply means that once you join a social network site or sites,, you have the opportunity to connect with friends, family members, old classmates; as well as meet other people around the world. If you are a business owner, this is a great way to connect with customers, add new customers, as well a advertise your business to the world.

Rubrics give a student general guidelines for assignment completion. After grading an assignment it can be a good idea, time permitting and how far into a course a student is, to leave comments on how a student may improve their work in specific areas. Jim

Along with on-line interaction I meet with students once a week in class. Every class meeting I go over the syllabus and reinforce proper netiquette and course expectations. Jim

I use e-mails, sent to individual students who may be at risk for various reasons, to develop a one-on-one relationship with the student.

How should an instructor help a student communicate in an appropriate and professional manner? A student may use slang in an online course. I would like to help these students without insulting them.

At my college we use a certain LMS that requires students to make peer posts on discussion boards. It is necessary for me to spend a great deal of time to help students learn how to make these peer posts and get in the swing of posting to these forced discussions. Eventually the students do get it and I've been happy to see them even develop a community and support one another in learning. But I agree that there are much better ways, more efficient and effective ways, as mentioned in this module, to get students engaged in the online community. However, I'm not comfortable with using students' willingness to share personal information as a standard for building community. I'm comfortable with teacher and students keeping it professional and building relationships through discussions about course material and how that subject matter affects us in our daily lives. Does anyone think I'm offbase here?

Fortunately in the 8 years that I have been teaching online I have not had one student cross the line in any post. In fact their peer posts are often very supportive of one another. I'm going to be positive and trust that an issue won't happen in the future. But after studying this unit I'm going to conduct a self-audit and see what else I can do to shore up the guidelines I currently have established.

I did not expect, when I started this unit, that the telephone would be mentioned as a tech tool. Yet I use it. And I believe that it's effective because a phone call is unexpected by the online student. And its a great way to develop a positive relationship. The student, hearing the teacher's voice, can tell that the teacher respects him/her and is genuinely concerned. So sometimes applying simpler and older tools and applying the KISS (keeping it simple)method can be extremely valuable- until the online instructor gets set to introduce more modern tools.

I really like the idea of assigning students to be discussion monitors. This is something I've done onground but not thought to do online and I think I missed a great opportunity to use this idea in my online class last quarter. I had a very smart but quiet student who I could have assigned this task. I won't hesitate to use this idea in the future.

The number one pitfall I see with all online students is time management. Many students have other responsibilities outside of school and they don’t set aside the necessary time for completing assignment on time and prepare for test. I help students by providing a due date calendar and posting email reminder two days before assignments and tests are due. Shundra Mosby

All seven principles of learning are important. Each principle of learning is necessary for student’s success. For example, feedback and encouragement are important for the online instructor because feedback helps students understand what they did well and what needs improving. So on the next assignment the student can maintain their strength and improve in the area of weakness. Encouragement is necessary because this principle keeping students involved and engaged in necessary for their success of the class. Shundra Mosby

In my online course I used both communication tools. The reason why because everyone learns differently and have both types of communication tools in your course can reach all students regardless of the differences. Shundra Mosby