Communication Policies in Online Courses

Online courses typically involve a lot of written communication, which can be time-consuming especially if certain communication standards or expectations are not easily identifiable by participants.

Some faculty find it helpful to maintain a communication policy within the Syllabus or as an Announcement. A sample appears below.

As an exercise in professional communication and self-representation, all emails and discussion board postings must follow traditional writing standards. Each communication should include:

• A Salutation: Hi/Hello Person's Name
• A message or body that is clear, concise, polite, and has complete sentences with standard spelling and grammar--including capitalization and punctuation. (No text message-ese or IM slang).
• A Sign-Off: Thanks/See you Monday/Have a nice weekend/Best wishes, and your name.

When you have questions for me, please use the following guidelines so that other students may benefit:

• Questions about TECHNOLOGY should be asked in the Technology Questions discussion forum. 
• Questions about an ASSIGNMENT or the SYLLABUS should be posted in the Questions for the Instructor discussion forum.
• Personal matters should be discussed with your instructor through email.