Communication tools

The eLearning LMS used at the University of Sydney uses a number of integrated communication tools to enable the conversation between you, the lecturers and the rest of your class. Discussion boards and the Notification Dashboard are widely used tools in the eLearning sites. It is important to be aware that discussion boards have different levels of privacy. Discussions in Learns by default are set so that only people enrolled in the course have access to the discussions.

If your UoS elearning site uses any of these tools, your lecturer might expect you to use the tool(s) to:

• post to a blog, journal or a discussion board.
• participate in group discussions on a particular topic.
• communicate with other members of a tutorial or team via a private group.
• introduce yourself to the rest of the class.

Online Netiquette

It is important to realise that chat rooms and the other communication tools in your site are part of your UoS. This means that there are standards of appropriate conduct online, just as there are in a tutorial or laboratory situation. These online standards of behaviours are called netiquette.

Like any sort of communication, online communication depends on participants speaking a similar language and showing each other a similar level of respect. It is particularly important to be clear and polite in your written speech as the usual non-verbal methods of communication do not carry across into text. Using the occasional emoticon or paying attention to grammar and spelling can help clarify the meaning of your responses. Your fellow students or lecturers may not appreciate conversations becoming informal or going off-topic.

Students are expected to show each other mutual respect at all times. The university has a policy for dealing with students who engage in defamatory or offensive behaviour. You can download a copy of the ICT resources policy the policy of which is stated below:

All Users will be lawful, efficient, economical and ethical in their use of the University’s ICT Resources, which are provided to create, preserve, transmit and apply knowledge through teaching, research, creative works and other forms of scholarship.

Discussion board notifications

You can see a list of all your new discussion board postings in the Notifications Dashboard. You will also new postings from blogs, journals and wikis. These communication tools have different levels of privacy. Some blogs may be shared between the whole class or just a group, while others may only be between you and the lecture/tutor. Depending on your access, you might see different discussions to a classmate.

Blogs

Blogs are chronological posts, usually opinion based, in the form of a webpage. These posts are displayed by the date of entry. Blogs in Blackboard Learn are only visible to people enrolled in the course, and by default can be seen by the rest of your class. You may be set the task of maintaining a blog as part of your assessment in a UoS course.Your lecturer may choose to set up the blog for the whole class or as individual blogs. An individual blog would have only you as the author, however your classmates could respond by posting comments.

Blogs are often group-based - either within your tutorial group or as an entire class contributing to the blog.

Journals

Journals are by default shared only to you and your lecturer or tutor. They are a personal journal used by you to engage in private and internal reflection on a particular topic or aspect of the course. Your tutor or lecturer can review and comment upon your reflections. There is an option of opening journals other students to share your journal entries.

Wikis in Learn

A Wiki is a collaborative tool which allows you to contribute and modify web pages based on your own content. It provides a means of sharing and collaboration between the class or a restricted group. Pages can be created and edited quickly by members of the group, and it allows you to see who has edited, added or made changes to the wiki. This makes collaboration between multiple writers in tutorial groups easier, and allows you to edit online, in real time.

Your lecture or tutor can create one or more Wikis for all course members to contribute to, or Wikis for specific groups to use to collaborate. You can add text, images, audio and video files to the wiki.