Students have a responsibility to themselves and to the other students in a course to use good netiquette and to help promote learning in the course. To do this you will need to participate in a courteous manner in the discussions taking place on the discussion board for the course.

Read my article here:
Students� Responsibilities in Online Discussions

Do you agree that you should participate in online discussion? Are there other things to consider that I haven't mentioned in the article?

Elizabeth, great piece!

One point that really stuck out for me was the length of the responses. So many, use those "I agree" statements only when dealing with discussion boards. Agree about what? Which point? There needs to be more to it than that. If I cannot add more to the conversation, I do not respond to that posting.

"I agree" LOL

Okay, I couldn't resist. I know in my prior classes (and hope in my future classes) that I agree statements are not acceptable as replies. It isn't as if you're sitting in a room having a discussion and can see head nods and shakes or eyes rolling. Discussion boards are just that .... discussions.

If I have an issue reading someone's post (usually because their grammar or sentence structure is so horrendous I cannot figure out what the heck they're saying), I move on. If I agree with their post, I state the reason I agree. I may agree with 90% of their statements and need to state what I agree with and WHY I agree. Sometimes the post will bring up a question to consider or make me think of another point, in agreement or disagreement, that might need to be brought up.

I just don't think they get it. Too much twitter and facebook to understand a discussion.

How true Rebecca! Too many people are losing the ability to think about problems and possible solutions and think everything only needs a one sentence statement to engage others.

However, I can't help but think that the education system today is not expecting or requiring or teaching students how to think. Some good teachers are, but is it possible that many teachers haven't been taught to think for themselves and therefore are not capable of teaching others to do so?

Elizabeth, I can absolutely agree. I am watching my own children going through the school system and I am mortified at some of the classes and their expectations or lack of to be precise. One of my daughter's essays was a perfect score. Her facts were good. Her argument sound. Her spelling atrocious. Why did she get a perfect score? Her teachers say that spelling does not count in other classes. There goes the future.

Exactly Rebecca. I don't think when the student writes an essay making good points that they should fail because of bad grammar or spelling but how will they learn that it isn't perfect and learn to do better in those areas if they think everything is perfect already?

Right. I praised her for what she did good. But I pointed out why spelling was important. It will bite her in college later if she has a teacher worth anything.

I agree completely and at Northeastern they say explicitly in every class that while the topic of THAT CLASS might not be writing, that Northeastern as a whole expects students to use proper spelling and sentence structure. So you will be penalized in any class for not having those basics down.

It doesn't help a person to ignore issues with their papers. It only lets them perpetuate their problems.