Course Communication

There are many ways to talk to us in this course: telephone, fax, e-mail and discussion forum. We prefer that you use the discussion forum, since this method reduces overhead for the lecturers, and ensure that ALL students can access the questions as well as answers, thus reducing the number of similar queries sent to the lecturers. However, if you do not have Internet access, you can use any other form of communication. We will keep students without Internet access updated of all relevant conversations that might take place on the discussion forum.

METHOD 1
Our Discussion Forum is an OPEN platform where every student can see every question that is posted as well as every reply. This makes our course transparent, and resolve many individual queries and problems since many students experience the same problems. Please consult our discussion forum at least 2 or 3 times a week (make it a daily task if you can afford to.) If you have queries or comments relating to this course and you can access our discussion forum, please post a message to it. Important or informative discussions on our discussion forum, will be compiled in a separate document and sent to correspondence students towards the end of the academic year. Below, we briefly explain how to use the discussion forum.

User name and Password
When you enter the discussion forum the first time, you will be requested to register as a user of the discussion forum. This is NOT the same access to our course webpage. When you register as a user, just follow the instructions given on the discussion forum registration page, and choose your own user name and password. Remember do not choose the user name and password of this course. This user name and password can be very simple and it links your personal details, such as your name to your message when you post a message to the discussion forum. It also gives you some privacy, since the discussion forum does not publish your e-mail address, but merely your name. For example, if your name is Peter Shong, and you indicate in your registration that you are P. Shong, your discussion forum postings will always have a "from P. Shong" attached to it. This shows that you have to be careful when you register as a discussion forum user, because if you type a silly name such as "Baboon", your postings will always indicate that the message is "from Baboon".

What is a Discussion forum TOPIC?
A topic implies a specific theme under discussion It make sense to put all messages concerning a specific matter under a specific topic heading. For example, I have created a topic called "Hello..." on our discussion forum. Instead of every person posting a "hello" message to the discussion forum, it makes more sense to post all hello-messages under the same topic.

WHEN and HOW to participate in a specific topic?
If you read a message to which you like to respond to, you must click on the <Reply to this message> link and then type your text in the box below before finally clicking on the <post> button. If you want to post any message to the discussion forum, first have a look if there is a topic on the issue, before creating a new topic.

WHEN and HOW to create a new topic?
If you want to make a comment, or post a query to our webpage on an issue that has not been discussed before, use the <New Topic> link to start a new topic. Remember to give your topic a suitable HEADING which captures the essence of your message.

What NOT to post to the discussion forum?

  • Do not post your student number to the discussion forum. This is private information, and should not be published to a public forum.
  • Do not post a change of your personal details (like e-mail address, tel no, etc) to the discussion forum - these should be e-mailed or phoned through to our course secretary, Ms Havenga at havene@unisa.ac.za or (012) 429 6089

Discussion Forum Ethics
When we grew up our parents and our teachers taught us general ethical behaviour like how to be sensitive to someone's pain, or when not to giggle, et cetera. However, little was ever mentioned on Internet ethics, most probably because the Internet was not an issue then. Often people misunderstand each other because of a lack of Internet ethics - mostly caused by ignorance. Here is a few tips on Internet ethics to ensure that the messages that you post to our discussion forum carry the intended meaning, and you are not misunderstood.

  1. AVOID SHOUTING:
    Messages accentuated with exclamation marks (!!!!) are generally interpreted as ‘shouting' and therefore are regarded as rude. Try not to use exclamation marks when you are upset or desperate - and when are, it might be a good idea to write your message on paper, leave it for the afternoon and only type and post it the next day.
  2. USE SENSIBLE PUNCTUATION:
    Do not use all CAPITALS when you write, it really reads difficult. Try and stick to common language/punctuation rules for this make you look more professional (and commonly more friendly). For example, names, I (referring to myself), days of the weeks, or month names always start with a capital. Some people use small caps for everything and seldom any full stops or commas. This makes for very difficult reading and is often frustrating to the reader.
  3. EXPRESS YOUR EMOTIONS IN A FRIENDLY MANNER:
    There are a number of expression characters to add a bit of your emotional state to your message. For example, :-) means a smile, while ;-) is a wink or a naughty smile, while :-( is a sad face and :-o shows surprise.

 

METHOD 2
Experience has shown us that many students experience the same problems. Answering these problems by e-mail, doubles the work of the lecturers, since they must often answer the same question over and over again. We therefore ask you to use the discussion forum where possible. However, if you have a query of a personal nature or a query regarding your administrative information, please e-mail our secretary at havene@unisa.ac.za. Just remember to always supply your full name, student number as well as the course code. You can also e-mail the lecturers for content or course related information at xml@cs-cert.unisa.ac.za

METHOD 3
 (Please remember, if you do phone us, always mention your course code and have your student number available.)

Contact Number: (012) 429 6089 (administrative) / 429 6009 (course queries)
Contact Fax Number: (012) 429 6771
Course Secretary: Ms. Havenga
Course Lecturers: Mrs. A. Gerber and Mrs. J.A. van Biljon

METHOD 4
Letters on any aspects regarding the module should be addressed as follows:
Responsible Person (which can be either Ms Havenga or one of the course lecturers)


XML-course
Department of Computer Science and Information Systems
UNISA
P.O. Box 392
PRETORIA
0003