Students are responsible for their conduct in the online classroom. Students are expected to adhere to the same standards of politeness that are followed in the traditional face-to-face classroom.

Individual instructors may include rules for netiquette in their course syllabus. Some general guidelines that online students should be aware of and follow include:

• Use of proper language in all communications.
• Harrasment of any type will not be tolerated. No jokes, insults, or threats of a personal, racial, or sexual nature.
• Don't use all CAPITAL letters in your writing. This is considered shouting in the online classroom.

In addition NCTC's policy on computer use includes the following statements on Responsible use of NCTC resources.

Responsible Use

Some types of computer usage and personal behavior are considered to be harassing but may not be direct violations of law or other policy. These activities could include:

sending information to USENET newsgroups or electronic mail lists that is not consistent with the stated purpose of the newsgroup or e-mail list;

sending information to persons who do not want to review such materials;

sending information to a person which in turn causes a computer system to malfunction; and

sending inflammatory language and words in electronic communications.

The College is committed to providing an educational and work climate that is conducive to the personal and professional development of each individual, and to protect the rights and privileges and to enhance the self-esteem of all its members. Computer users are reminded that this procedure applies to many of the activities listed above. Users are reminded that they are responsible for their actions and the consequences of those actions, which could result in College disciplinary action.

General Responsibilities

The following are general responsibilities assigned to all NCTC computer users:

To neither harass nor vilify others on the basis of race, religion, ethnic background, nationality, gender, political affiliation, sexual preference, age or disability.

To be considerate of the costs and limitations of network bandwidth, storage space, paper, and other people's time. This includes the responsibility not to send/forward chain letters through e-mail, and to unsubscribe from mailing lists if you will not be checking your e-mail for an extended period of time. Another example is to refrain from publishing a web page, unrelated to academic pursuits, that causes an undue number of accesses to that page. "Undue," in this instance means that, in the judgment of the affected NCTC system administrator(s), the accesses diminish the capability of the system(s) to provide services to the users of the system(s).

To refrain from the distribution of unsolicited information or advertising not relating to the normal activities and business of the College.

To include adequate warning with any information that may mislead or endanger a naive reader.

Not to publicly distribute the expressions, images, or particulars of others without their consent.

To represent yourself, your observations and opinions, and the expressions of others sincerely and without misrepresentation.

To report any violation of these guidelines by another individual to a College official within the Computing Center, the Information Resources Council, or the Office of Internal Audit.

Students should review the full version of NCTC’s Responsible Use Policy to be totally informed of NCTC's policies.