Communicating and Collaborating Online.

Technology is the basis of everything we do in the world now-a-days –whether it be to check e-mails, contact family or friends, or doing school work– we are always using some type of technology to accomplish our tasks for the day. Since technology is used so much it is important to know how to properly communicate to fellow students, teachers, or future employers.

Communicating Online

When communicating online with your classmates it is important to remember:

1. First impressions still matter. Making a good impression with your classmates online is just as important as making a good impression with people in a classroom. The more friends you make throughout the course, the more advantage you will have. Making friends in a course is so helpful because you now have someone you can contact to study with, ask questions, and so on. In order to make a good impression make sure you take the time to personalize any e-mails you send. Adding personalization allows you to show them that you actually care for what they say and how they are doing, instead of them thinking you are just “using” them to get things for that class.

2. Make sure to check your spelling and grammar. Make sure to not include any abbreviations or slang terms in any of your communication. Some abbreviations can cause miscommunications due to having several different meanings. Slang terms can cause you to look unprofessional or seem as though you do not care enough to give your full attention to the classwork. So remember when writing e-mails to your fellow students to write everything out and re-read it a few times!

3. Be sure to be specific. If you are asking a classmate for lecture notes for a class you missed, make sure to give as much detail as possible. For example, include the date of the lecture you missed and what it was about, so that they do not have to go out of their way to help you out.

When communicating online with your professor make sure to:

1. Don’t wait till the end of the semester. As soon as the semester starts, make sure to go out of your way and e-mail your professor about how you are looking forward to their class and ask any questions you may have. Throughout the semester, e-mail your professor with any questions you may have about the lectures or the assignments. Professors are there to help us, after all!

2. Always communicate through a professional style. Always make sure to refer to your instructor by their titles, never by their first name. Make sure to write everything out in full sentences and paragraphs, and thank them for their time.

Collaborating Online

There’s a good chance sometime throughout your academic career you are going to have to do some type of group assignment. With everyone having different schedules and obligations, it is likely that must of the collaborating for the assignment will be done online. Or you may be involved in some type of study group designed by the instructor.  So when you face this type situation make sure to:

1. Provide feedback for your peers. Always give kind feedback and never just completely shoot down a peer’s idea. Just because you think they are wrong, doesn’t mean everyone else does too. Make sure to actually think about their idea, and then possibly come up with another suggestion that works off of their idea.

2. Participate! Don’t let everyone else do the work for you, always make sure to add your input to the assignment and always put just as much effort into the group as everyone else.
3. Stay organized. Make sure each member of the group is completing their tasks on time, schedule meetings for the group, schedule due dates for each task. An easy way to stay on top of all these things is creating a calendar on Google that is shared between each group member.