Course Communications

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How to Communicate in this Course

Meaningful interactions among students and instructors are the hallmark of a successful online class. Canvas supports several types of communication, as described below.

In addition, registered students have Penn State e-mail accounts (<Access Account ID>@psu.edu) that they need to monitor for any official communications that come from the University or from the Penn State World Campus.

Sometimes questions arise as to whom to contact about a certain issue and where.  Use the information below to guide you in seeking answers to your questions.

For general questions about the course content and activities...

If you have any questions about the course content or activities, at any point in the course, please post them to our Discussion Forums in Canvas. That way, everyone can benefit from seeing the question and the answer! That forum will be checked at least once per day, Monday through Friday and once a day on weekends. While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate!

For questions of a personal nature...

If you have a question that you would prefer not to share with the rest of the class, such as about your grade, you are welcome to contact your faculty member via email through the learning management system anytime. We guarantee a response within 24 hours.

Whenever you post a message in a forum or send course mail, use a descriptive subject line. Subject lines that include the gist of a question or comment increase the chances that recipients can retrieve the messages we're looking for. Poor subject lines, such as "Question" or "Module 1," are useless as search keywords.

Please note that this is a comprehensive list of communication tools available in Canvas. This course may or may not utilize all of the options below.

Announcements

Announcements are messages from your instructor that contain important information. Current announcements can be accessed through the Announcements link in Canvas. Announcements may highlight assignment due dates (also published in the course Calendar), module recaps, a preview of an upcoming module and other essential course information.

Inbox

Inbox is the equivalent of email in Canvas. It's great to use for a quick email to another student, instructor, or a whole team. Keep in mind that the text editor is very minimal, and does not have much formatting capability. Please use Inbox only for private messages to instructors or fellow students.

Discussions

Discussions allow students to interact with the instructor and other classmates. Threaded discussions allow multiple posts and replies. New posts appear in the Course Activity Stream page, so you will know when something has been posted.

In general, questions and comments about project assignments, and course content should be shared with the entire class via the discussion forums. That way, everyone can benefit from the discussion.

Note

Whenever you post a message in a forum or send course mail, please title every message with a descriptive subject line. Subject lines that include the gist of a question or comment increase the chances that students and instructors can retrieve the messages we're looking for. Poor subject lines, such as "Question" or "Module 1," are not very useful as search keywords. When replying to a prior message, consider whether or not the subject line should be altered to indicate the content of your reply!