Communication

Your online instructor is a busy person, but is prepared to provide the assistance you need to complete your online course. You will enjoy your course more and make fewer mistakes if you establish regular contact. Here are some hints for communicating with your instructor:

• Check in with your instructor regularly.
  Don't be afraid that you will bother your instructor with too much mail. Increased communication will save both you and your instructor time in the long run. Share your experience of the course: both your confusions and what you like.
• Don't be offended if your instructor points you to other resources. 
  Your instructor receives a great amount of email. To stay sane, he or she will often refer you to other resources that should answer your question instead of rewriting an answer that appears elsewhere. This is to help you become aware of resources in your course site and to help your instructor get through long lists of mail. It's not because they don't like you.
• Use email as your first mode of communication. The preferred method of contact is through STC Student MAIL.  You can do this by selecting Send Email in your online course or from the mySTC menu.
  This is an online class, and one of the goals is to make the course available at any time of day from a variety of places. You and your instructor will not always be (and in some cases, may never be) online at the same time. That makes email, an "asynchronous" form of communication, an ideal way to interact. Please use email as your first contact option as stated on your syllabus.
• Check your STC Student Mail email daily. (The Send Email button in the menu or from the mySTC menu.)
  Sometimes your instructor, Student Affairs, and Financial Aid will send time sensitive material via email. If you only check your email once a week, you may not get the message before it is too late. Even if you do nothing else for your online course on a particular day, you should try to check your email once. You pledged to do this on the first day of class and it is a requirement on your syllabus.
• Put the course name and number in the subject box of the email along with a short description. If you put symbols in the subject box of the email, your instructor may not be able to open the email. Do not put urgent!, need help..., ch 1 & 2, etc. These all contain symbols that will prevent your instructor from opening your email.  Example: CIST2127 Week 1 Homework
• Be specific in the content of your messages.
  To help your instructor respond to you, be specific about who you are and what you need. In every message, identify your full name; the course you are taking (and section you are in if there are more than one), the assignment, reading, or unit you are working on; and the specific information you are requesting in reply. This will help your instructor answer your question quickly and completely.
• Your instructor will respond within 24 hours, usually earlier Monday-Thursday 8 am - 5 pm. 
  He or she needs time to process all of the mail that comes in and think about your question or do some research before writing back. If you don't receive a response within that time frame, send your message again. Accidents can happen, and your instructor may have lost track of your original message or not realized that a response was requested. Again, this is not personal; it's just a mistake that anyone can make when they deal with hundreds of messages a day. Be persistent, and your question will be answered!

Please send all questions or concerns to the instructors email address. You will get a very quick response if email is sent between Monday-Thursday 8 - 5 pm.