Online Course Peer Review

Netiquette is, more or less, the use of appropriate communication online (network etiquette). This rubric standard is worth just one point,yet clearly communicating to students what is expected in terms of appropriate communication can result in less work for the instructor (fewer emails to students about what is/is not appropriate, fewer deletions of discussion postings, and maybe even fewer instructor headaches!).

The rubric standard states: Netiquette guidelines for the course, including etiquette regarding discussions and email communications, are clearly stated.

It is important to note that thestatedguidelines themselves are not evaluated during a peer review. Reviewers are just to make sure that some netiquette guidelines are in place.

When writing netiquette guidelines, consider explanations of:

• Rules of conduct for participating in discussions.
• Rules of conduct for communicating via email.
• Speaking style requirements (correct English? slang ok?)
• Spelling and grammar expectations, if any.

When conducting a review, if it isn’t already found in an LSC instructor’s course, I recommend the following link be added: http://www.lsc.edu/Online/Start/netiquette.cfm You’ll find our Code of Conduct/LSC Media UsePolicy there as well as a couple of very helpful netiquette links.

Of course, I need to add that some of the recommendations found above are from the rubric annotations that the LSC peer review team adapted from MarylandOnline’s Quality Matters program. They did good work!

I’d love to hear comments from readers! Anything in particular you’d like me to address regarding online course peer review?