What is Netiquette?

Nitiquette means ( net ettiqutte). It refers to the dos and donts in online communication. E-learners should consider netiquette while communicating with their peers and instructor. Following are some netiquette rules:
Rule 1: Remember the Human: Remember that you are communicating wuth humens and try to not hurt their feelings.
Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life.
Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace, you have to know the regulations of any cyperspace you communicate within. Also concider that joks can be understand differently in that cyperspace because you can use words only, so you have to be carefull.
Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth.
Rule 5: Make yourself look good online.
Rule 6: Share expert knowledge.
Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control.
Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy.
Rule 9: Don't abuse your power.
Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes.
reference: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/

E-Instructor

What is the role of the instructor in online course?
Today many institutions are going for e-learning. They spend a lot of mony in developing the needed infrastructure but they miss an important issue which is the ability of academic stuff to adopt e-learning. E-instructor should have certain competencies and skills that enable him to be successful e-instructor.

E-instructor competencies:
Before talking about the competencies them self, I would like to present the definition of the word competency as I found it one site.
Competency refers to appropriate prior knowledge, skills, attitudes, and abilities in a given context that adjust and develop with time and needs in order to effectively and efficiently accomplish a task and that are measured against a minimum standard.

E-instructor should develop certain competencies that enable him to facilitate the e-course effectively. Such competencies are related to four main categories:

• Pedagogical:
  The instructor role as educational moderator require him to respond to students questions, guide the discussion when it goes off topic, explain difficult issues …etc
• Social:
  The e-instructor should promote effective relationships between students and maintain group unity.
• Managerial:
  Setting objectives, rules and regulations is an important aspect of managing e-course. The e-instructor should manage the interaction with strong leadership and direction.
• Technical:
  In order to help students concentrate in the academic task the instructor should make the technology transparent, by quickly repairing any technical issues and giving students tips how to easily use this technology.

Here is a link for useful site about e-instructor competencies:
http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring101/varvel101.htm

What skills you need, to be an e-learner?

E-learning creates new learning invironment, demanding new learning skills for students who dosent have enough experiences of Internet use. Definitly, the skills needed for e-learning environment differes from those for face-to face or classroom environment. Such skills like : self confident, self responsibility, e-communication skills, team working skills and many other.
Learners can adapt some skills they used in traditional learning environment to the new e-learning environment, and also they have to gain new skills specific for e-learning.
For Example, learners who used The Cornell system for taking notes in traditional classroom , can use the same system when taking notes from PDF document in online course.
However, E-learner has to develop new skills for Communication through internet using e-mails, chat rooms, forums and other communication tools.
E-learner needs to have time management skills, so he can met the didlines of the projects. Also he has to be responsible about his own learning because no body will keep traking him in doing assignments and supmiting projects.
Another skill e-learner should have is searching the web for usefull and credible information, because in online learning there is no certine resource to depend on; it is an open environment where the learner can get huge number of resources, and he has to choose the credible ones.
Netiqate, or (net etiqate) is another issue have to be considered when talking about e-learner skills. E-learner has to be carefull about his writings e.g. writting in All CAPITAL letters is the Internet equivalent of shouting, it may be considered rude.
Here is some references
http://www.dso.iastate.edu/asc/academic/elearner/skills.html http://www.learningcircuits.org/2001/may2001/elearn.html