Overview
In a face-to-face class, most of your communication needs are met in the classroom: hearing announcements, asking questions and receiving answers, engaging in small group discussions, and so on. In a fully online course, all communication is electronic and not necessarily immediate. Online communication involves aspects of complying with University policy, configuring Canvas to support your preferences, using the right communication tool for the task at hand, and treating others with the same respect you would show if you were speaking with them face-to-face.
Accordingly, this section of the orientation should help you do the following:
- Comply with specific University policies when you communicate online
- Properly enable your settings and configure your notifications preferences in Canvas
- Differentiate among the range of communication tools available in Canvas and choose the right tool for the task Practice good netiquette
- Locate tutorial information (videos and documentation) to gain proficiency across the range of Canvas communication tools
University Policies
University policy dictates that the instructor cannot discuss academic information with students via e-mail EXCEPT when messages are sent to and from your PSU e-mail account.
If you write from another account (Gmail, etc.), you will be asked to use your PSU e-mail or the Canvas messaging system (Conversations). This is the only way to be sure the message comes from a PSU student.
Canvas Settings and Notification Preferences
- Note: your configuration choices are global, not course-specific; whatever method/frequency you select will apply to ALL courses in which you are enrolled.
- In the Ways to Contact panel of your Canvas account settings, supply your Penn State e-mail address; you may add other e-mail or messaging addresses as well
- You may also register a number of popular Web services for which you have accounts to streamline your communication
- In your Notifications, make your choices for each Activity Category; for example, you will not receive calendar updates outside of Canvas UNLESS you turn that notification option on
Announcements
- Announcements are what you would expect: timely alerts, reminders, and other notices from your instructor regarding important information for students enrolled in the course
- Important: you will not receive a course announcement outside of Canvas UNLESS you turn that notification option on (we advise setting it for immediate notification)
- Depending on how your instructor has configured announcements, you may or may not be able to reply to them
Conversations
Conversations are the Canvas equivalent to e-mail. You may also hear them referred to as "messages" or the "messaging system" or simply the "inbox." The most direct form of communication with the instructor or TA will be via Conversations. You are encouraged to use Conversations to address any and all questions or concerns that you may have.
- Important information about the class will be communicated through your PSU e-mail, so you are expected to check your PSU e-mail regularly.
- You may email your Instructor and TA through Canvas or directly to their PSU addresses. During the work week, you may expect to receive a reply within 48 hours.
- The instructor will often respond to e-mails with a non-Canvas e-mail program for convenience. If you prefer responses to be sent within Canvas you should request this in your message.
- Gradebook comments addressed to you will appear in your Inbox.
Discussions
Discussions are very similar to other discussion forum tools you likely have used.
Note: If you wish to receive discussion updates outside of Canvas, you will need to check the box to subscribe to that discussion. You may want to subscribe to all of the course discussions at once.
Communicating Online (Netiquette)
Communicating online is an everyday activity for most of us; so much so that the tone and form of our communications oftentimes becomes highly informal and abbreviated. A breezy, informal communication style is fine with our friends or family (people who know us and likely understand our perspectives), but can become problematic when we’re trying to communicate with formal acquaintances (i.e., class instructors) or in situations (such as in online course discussions) where we might be trying to convey or discuss complex ideas with relative strangers.
In this course, your online communication will likely take the form of emails or posts to group discussions.
As these online communications are considered part of a college course, your writing style should conform to the rules of Standard English. Accordingly, you should introduce yourself, clearly state your reason for making contact, and use the spell check feature prior to sending or posting. Please refrain from using emoticons, slang, or instant texting terms and never resort to using vulgar language. Don’t use all capital letters as it gives the impression you’re SHOUTING! Finally- be professional and respectful — treating someone in a courteous and respectful manner encourages them to respond to you in a similar way.
Here are some suggestions for contributing to online discussions:
- Good Attitude! Operate from the perspective that everyone in the discussion is participating with the goal to create a lively, interesting conversation.
- Be Prepared. Be prepared to participate in the discussions—do the readings, review media that may be assigned, and think about the issues or questions that have been posted in relationship to the discussion topic.
- Ask Nicely. If you are not certain about the meaning of a comment, ask the original poster to elaborate or clarify what they’ve written.
- Be Respectful. Recognize and value the experiences, abilities, and knowledge each person brings to class. Acknowledge the diverse perspectives and viewpoints of class members.
- Disagree with ideas, not classmates. Ideas are presented for discussion and that sometimes includes pointed disagreement. When disagreeing with the ideas of another, be sure that your comments are directed toward his or her ideas and not the actual person. Never use personal attacks to express your disagreement.
- Use humor carefully. Be cautious about injecting humor into your comments and remember that it’s easy to misinterpret humor in written language. In face to face conversations, our body language and the inflections of our voices help others discern when we are being humorous.
- Reference who you are responding to. A brief summary or reference quote from the comment you are responding will help provide a context for your comment and identify to whom who you are responding.
- Don’t just jump into a long thread; review earlier comments and postings so that you do not simply repeat what others have written.
- Post your responses under the appropriate heading or thread.
- Cite your References. Acknowledge the source of your information and provide links to online material that might help expand or illustrate your points.
- Contribute enthusiastically and diligently to online conversations but don’t monopolize or hijack them. Since reading other’s comments or articles can be very time consuming, try to be succinct and brief.
Communication Tutorials and Documentation
For video demonstrations and tutorial documents related to the above-mentioned Canvas tools, please see this URL.
