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Respect others and their opinions. In online learning students from various backgrounds come together to learn. It is important to respect their feelings and opinions though they may differ from your own.Consider others’ privacy. Ask for permission if you want to forward someone’s email messages to third parties. Keep in mind that all private email mail is considered copyrighted by the original author. Pick the right tone. Since we depend on the written word in online learning, it is especially important to choose the right words to get your meaning across. For example, sarcasm is harder to detect when you read the words rather than hearing them.Avoid inappropriate material. Distribution of pornographic material will result in disciplinary action.Be forgiving. If someone states something that you find offensive, mention this directly to the instructor. Remember that the person contributing to the discussion might be new to this form of communication. What you find offensive may quite possibly have been unintended and can best be cleared up by the instructor.Think before you hit the send button. Think carefully about the content of your message before contributing it. Once sent to the group there is no taking it back. Grammar and spelling errors reflect on you and your audience might not be able to decode misspelled words or poorly constructed sentences.Brevity is best. Be as concise as possible when contributing to a discussion. Your points might me missed if hidden in a flood of text.Stick to the point. Contributions to a discussion should stick to the subject. Don’t waste others' time by going off on irrelevant tangents.Do not type in all caps. Typing in caps is considered shouting or screaming online. Various studies on the topic reflect that it is more difficult and takes longer to read text that is typed in all caps. Frivolous email. Don’t forward jokes, "chain letter's" or unimportant email to other students without their permission. Not only does it fill up their mailboxes but may offend people who do not share the same sense of humor or who are tired of these types of email.

A basic understanding of how Internet risks occur helps to place any Internet safety advice in context. Once you identify which factors have a greater impact on you and your family, you can adapt recommendations to your specific needs. Take a moment to consider each of the six factors that contribute to the current online environment:Lack of knowledge. Consumers of every age and at every level of technical expertise lack broad online safety education. This lack of knowledge is not limited to young people, but extends to the general population, including computer specialists who may not know any more than others about online predatory behavior.Carelessness. Even when we ‘know better,’ we make mistakes. Usually those mistakes occur when we’re tired, rushed, or don’t have a complete understanding of the risks involved. This is especially true when there is no obvious cause and effect to help us correct our behavior. When you post information that is used a month later to rob your home, you are not likely to recognize a connection between the two events. In fact, the vast majority of victims of online crime will not recognize that an action they or someone else took online made them vulnerable to a criminal act.Unintentional exposure of (or by) others. It may be a teacher, school, parent, child, friend, employer, or after-school program that provides publicly accessible information that exposes you. Perhaps your own computer (or mobile phone, or other connected device) has been compromised with spyware that enables criminals to collect your personal information. Maybe when a friend’s computer or other Internet-enabled device was lost or stolen, your information fell into the wrong hands.Technology Flaws. Online products and services can expose consumers – either because the companies who offer them fail to secure their customers’ data and are hacked, or because a company fails to build in adequate safeguards and safety messaging into their product to protect consumers.Holes in consumer protection standards. We cannot place the full burden of online safety on consumers.