This page is an example of some types of community expectations you might consider incorporating into your course.
“Netiquette”, or internet etiquette, is a set of expectations for appropriate online discourse. Some of these guidelines will apply to either asynchronous or synchronous interaction, whereas others may apply to both, depending on the facilitating technologies used. This is not an exhaustive list of netiquette and we encourage you to adapt this version and engage students in creating community guidelines for your course as part of a class exercise to incorporate their diverse perspectives and ideas.
If you would like to modify or make use of the example WesternOnline Community Expectations, we have created a Word Document for you to download:
Example Community Expectations
We encourage you to follow these guidelines in order to communicate effectively and respectfully in our online learning community.
You are encouraged to…
Create a culture of care
- Express thoughts and information clearly. If using text-based platforms, facial expressions or tone of voice do not always translate into the written word and can be misinterpreted.
- Be forgiving and supportive of your classmates. We are all learners.
- Embrace differences. We all come from different backgrounds and cultures, and we will bring different perspectives and diverse experiences to the discourse.
- Lead with empathy and respect. Before you post or communicate, ask yourself:
- How would I interpret this if I received it?
- Should I send it?
- Is the content better discussed over the phone, video chat or in person?
Engage fully
- Actively listen and be present when others are talking by limiting distractions or following the class expectations around using your camera or demonstrating your engagement.
- Acknowledge your classmates’ contributions when you add to the discussion to demonstrate thoughtfulness.
- Provide sincere and constructive comments/feedback to your classmates that include relevant resources, experiences, and helpful information.
- Respond in a timely manner to your classmates’ comments.
Communicate academically
- Make the subject line of a post/message specific to your content to improve the clarity of your communication.
- Review the course’s communication timelines and expectations and be patient. You may not receive instant responses from peers or professors.
- Be understanding of occasional grammatical and spelling errors.
- Cite external sources that you used to develop your response in the appropriate citation format or link to the resource based on the course/activity expectations.
- Proofread posts before submitting. Avoid abbreviations, spelling or grammar errors, foul language, and ALL CAPITAL LETTERS (this is considered shouting).
NOTE: Our class’ Community Expectations also include basic university policies for student conduct and academic honesty. To read about WWU’s student conduct and other policies, please consult the Policies section of the Academic Success page.
WesternOnline Community Expectations is not meant to be an exhaustive list of all possible dos and don’ts in online communication. This represents one example of how to encourage successful and productive engagement in online courses.
This work “WesternOnline Community Expectations” is a derivative of “Netiquette” by Jaimie Hoffman used under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
