Netiquette Guidelines for Online Discussions

Most of human communication is through nonverbal cues, such as our facial expressions, posture, mannerisms, etc. When a person’s speech is incongruent with their body language it is often off-putting. For example, when someone agrees to help you and then rolls their eyes at you, you are able to tell that they are actually irritated, upset, annoyed, or don’t really mean what they are saying.

Within the online environment there is an absence of visual and auditory cues provided by our body language, making it harder to determine the full meaning and intent of communication. in face-to-face discussions these clues contribute a lot of nonverbal nuances and the overall meaning of the message. However, in an online classroom it is impossible to fully replicate these nonverbal cues.

To avoid and reduce misinterpretation of communication, Peter Roper provides ten ground rules for guiding successful online interactions.

1. Participate – This is a shared learning environment. Please do not lurk in the cyberspace background. For the maximum benefit of all, please contribute to discussions and group activities.
2. Be Thorough –Read everything in the discussion or group activity. This will help you avoid repeating something someone else has already contributed. Acknowledge the points others have made with which you agree and suggest alternatives for those with which you don’t.
3. Practice Brevity –You want your message to be clear. Being concise and on point will prevent others from not understanding the argument you are making or opinion you are sharing.
4. Use Formal Writing –Grammatical writing and sentence structure will help make your thoughts clearer to readers. This is also a form of academic writing and should use the same conventions as you would in crafting an essay or research paper.
5. Cite Your Sources –If you are mentioning the intellectual property of another person written, artistic, etc. it is unethical to not give proper credit or attribution to that person or persons of whose work you are using. Please give proper attribution to others’ work.
6. Emoticons, Emojis, and Texting –Social media and text messaging has spawned a body of linguistic shortcuts that are not part of the academic dialogue. Please refrain from using emoji, emoticons, and texting abbreviations
7. Respect Diversity –Don’t use language that is or could be interpreted as offensive towards others, such as racially-, sexually-, gender-, age-, ability-, religion-based slurs or language, comments, or jokes that may be derogatory or defamatory.
8. DON’ T YELL! Please refrain from using all caps to emphasize your point as it is use to denote yelling and is not considered appropriate in our cultural and social conventions of communication.
9. No Flaming –If you do not agree with another classmate’s perspective or opinion, you are welcome to offer a critique, but not a criticism. A critique offers a critical examination, acknowledging the positives and negatives, strengths and weaknesses of an argument, giving supporting evidence or logical reasoning for the critique. Whereas a criticism is an expression of disapproval, negative judgment, or faultfinding with no careful consideration of the argument. Ranting and profanity are not tolerated or appropriate in an academic context.
10. You Can’t Unring the Bell- Language is your only tool in an online environment. No one can read your body language or nonverbal cues or tone in your writing and may interpret what you write differently than you intended to convey. Please make sure you review your contributions and ensure that they convey the information you intend. You should also proofread and revise your submissions.

R.I.S.E. Model of Peer Feedback

In our group activities that involve discussions, you will need to submit your initial post and then respond thoughtfully to two of your classmates’ posts. Your responses should be substantive in nature to allow for the opportunity for back and forth discussion, rather than a short statement such as “I like your post” as this does not provide an opportunity for the person to hold a conversation with you. To ensure that you engage in thoughtful and substantive discussions, please follow the R.I.S.E. Model of Peer Feedback detailed below.

R.I.S.E. stands for Reflect, Inquire, Suggest, and Elevate, each is a style of feedback that you can choose to craft your responses to your classmates.

Reflect Response

• The purpose of a reflect response is to recall, ponder, and articulate. If you agree or disagree with what the poster has said this is a good response option to use. You will want to state your agreement/disagreement and why, then provide some supporting evidence or examples.
• Reflect Example: I really enjoyed your post about Ironman. I agree with your statement that Ironman is better than Captain America because he has all the coolest technology gadgets. He also has the advantage of being a genius. I think him losing in the Civil War comics was because the writers were partial to Captain America.

Inquire Response

• The purpose of an inquire response is to seek information and provide ideas through questioning. If you are unsure of what the poster means or wanting more detail, this is a good response option to use. You will want to state your question and why you have that question.
• Example: I am not a fan of comic books, but I like your post about Ironman. You listed several positives about him. I am not familiar with much superhero lore. It seems like, from a storytelling perspective, that he should have some weaknesses. Like how Superman has kryptonite. What weaknesses or flaws do you think Ironman has?

Suggest Response

• The purpose of a suggest response is to introduce ideas for improvement of the current opinion or argument.  If after reading a post, you have an additional idea or perspective that could strengthen the poster’s opinion or argument, this is a good response option to use.
• Example: You stated that Ironman is better than Captain America, listing several positives about Ironman, but you did not list any positives about Captain America. If you also included positives about Captain America and did a comparison, showing why Ironman’s positives are more useful or advantageous in fighting antagonists than Captain America’s, your argument would be more objective and make it stronger. Additionally, you could include negative attributes or weaknesses for each.

Elevate Response

• The purpose of an elevate response is to advance the poster’s ideas further by providing additional references or support from peer-reviewed or other credible sources. This is a good response option to use when someone mentions a topic you are knowledgeable about and can provide resources from verified sources as evidence to support the argument the poster is making. You will want to make sure you also include a link to the resource or a citation if a link is not available.
• Example: In your argument that Ironman is better than Captain America you list your personal reasons why he is a better superhero. However, your argument would be strengthened by citing other sources that support what you are saying. Have you seen this article “Captain America vs Iron Man: Who Would Win?” from Fiction Horizon. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of Iron Man and Captain America and who would win in a fight between the two of them.