Contacts

Make your posts in the right forum. Many modules have a forum for general discussion and other forums for individual study blocks or activities. Try to use these rather than sending all messages to the general forum. Similarly, don’t send a message to a forum if a wiki entry or a blog comment would be more appropriate.

When you start a new discussion, create a subject line that helps readers understand the topic quickly. If you introduce a new topic in an existing discussion, alter the subject line to signal the change.

If replying to a particular person in a forum, begin your post with an @ sign followed by their name. You can even make this the new subject line, very useful if you are just thanking someone. A subject line like ‘@Anna – thanks!’ says it all, without needing anything in the message.

If you do well in an assignment, it’s natural to want to share this online. However, we recommend you don’t mention your actual marks in case it discourages someone who has not done so well. It’s fine to write in more general terms though, such as ‘I was really pleased with my mark for TMA 01 – it was better than I expected’ or ‘I found the exam very hard but I’ve got the result I wanted, which I’m very happy about!’