Distance Learning, Developing Course "Communication"
Volunteer State Community College | Division of Academic Affairs
Are you planning to develop communication approaches that reach beyond the classroom? Explore the capabilities and uses of e-mail, discussions and chat features. Resources on these pages will help with communication development in your course. Click on Distance Learning Course Standards, then select links for "Communication" and for "Community" to read recommendations.
My VolState Online E-Mail allows you and your students to send, receive, reply, and forward mail messages to others in the course. You can also save drafts of mail messages, search your mail messages, and add mail folders.
WebCT Discussions allow you and your students to send, read, and search for messages.
Discussions is divided into different topics which allow you to create discussion groups around particular subjects. Topics can be public or private. Everyone in your course can access public topics, while private topics are available only to a set of students that you choose.
WebCT Chat Rooms allow you and your students to have real-time conversations. There are four general purpose chat rooms and one general forum for the course. Conversations in the four general purpose rooms are recorded. You are the only person in the course who can see the records.
There is also a general chat room for all courses, which is a room shared by everybody from all courses on the same server.
Click on Course Schedule Template, add the class assignments schedule and post online for your students. Never be concerned about students losing the due dates and assignments. Post them on a website.
Click on Office and Classroom Hours Template, add your schedule and post online for your students to contact you. Let your students know when they can call for an appointment.
