Distance Learning Principles (1)

(2) Netiquette

in the use of e-mail,
listservs, computer conferencing, and mailing lists

1) feel free to use first names to personalize the connection. 

2) Try to respond promptly to messages that you receive.   Once the peer-tutoring correspondence pattern is set up, students have to let the other party know if they have to be out of touch for a few days. 

3) Be gentle with criticism. 

4) For the sake of communication, don't just talk about oneself in the  mail; talk to the other party and ask him/her questions. 

5) Use descriptive titles: The subject line tells people what your message is about before they read it.  People with limited time can decide whether to read it at that time, delete it, or save it for later.  The title space 
is limited and they are truncated after the space is filled, so keep them short and to the point. 

6) When responding to a controversial topic, you should carefully consider your response.  You may want to type it in a word processing program first, look it over, and then copy and paste it into a message. 

7) Be careful with humor & sarcasm: it is easy for a remark meant to be funny to be misinterpreted without the voice inflections and body language of personal communications.  If you use subtle humor, take steps to make sure the other party realize you are trying to be funny.  Use the set of symbols that net users have developed to show emotions. 

8) Don't give the other party's e-mail address to others without permission. 

;-)    wink	:-)    grin	B-)   Happy face with glasses
8-)   excited	:-*    OOPS!	:-(   sad, unhappy
0:-)   Angel	:^D   great