Elements of Web Style

From Lrg-wiki

Elements of Web Style

Taken from Southworth, et. al, Blackboard for Dummies, Chapter 13, pp 293..294.

<i.[Note: These elements strike me as being generally misplaced in this chapter, and probably should be both introduced earlier and in/with a chapter of "teaching online" or something.The organization is a bit messy. Makes me think that this was a contribution from one author that several others had issues with.

Be a responsible color chooser.

Don't have too much fun in chooing the color of your text. Stay considetent, or elses you might learn a learner or two be cause of distraction. Color communicates, so don't use light pink juxt because it's a light pink day for you. Instead, use a text color that's relevant for your topic {Huh?] or neutral and readable. Black is always a solid choice. Green can commmunicate good or healthy. Red can communicate anger, urgency, or failure. Just be careful already. [Blue is normally for links, underlining is for links, italics are for italics.]

Admit that size is important, after all. 

Make your choices simple and consistent, at most headings are bigger than subheadings, which are bigger than paragraph text. Do not use ALL CAPS unless it's absolutely necessary because it makes text harder to read and, in the online world implies shouting. Need we say more?

Be clear with your expectatoins of both yourself and your learners. 

You're commuincation with yuor online class members, and they're communicating with you. Establish rules of engagement so that they know things like how often you plan to read the discussion forms or when exactly you have online office hourse. Fair is fair, so don't be a shadowy presence in e-land, Big Brother. Let your learners know that you're up to speed with electronic communications. If you're not, let them know that instead. Scary, eh?

Get to know netiquette. 

Netiquette is just like etiquette, except that it applies to Internet users, no matter how old they are. Be nice. Remember that humor doesn't travel well in e-mail. Respond to communications in a reasonable length of time. Keep communication concise, if you wat it all read. The list goes on. If you do an internet search for the word netiquette, you'll receive a truckload of links to read.

Be consistent. 

We don't need to harp more than we already have in this chapter, but after you establish your online personality, stick to it. Your learners will thank you for it.

Live by the calendar. 

Timing is important. In an application like Blackboard, you can choose when tests are deployed, when assignments are visible, when that PDF file you uploaded can be read, and virtually all else that any you can do with the application. Your sense of timing comunicates volumes a=to your learners, and you must keep it in mind.

Use small bits of multimedia. 

Movies and audio can live on large files. You and your learners might be on home internet connections that are dialing in over phone lines and are therefore slower than at your office. If the average learner has to spend an hour downloading five minutes of a television documentary that you (got permission for and) decided to upload to blacboard, the relevance of that piece might be lost on the frustrated learner.

Images and graphics can speak, so listen up. 

You've undoubtedly heard that a picture is worth a thousand words. In an online environment, because of the ease with which you can upload graphics, they can be worth a thousand of the wrong words. Be careful with image choice. Juse because you can upload pictures from your family vacation to the Grand Canyon for all of your class to enjoy, for example, doesn't mean that you should.