Community Ground Rules- Online Nutrition Class

Introduction to Nutrition Online Class --Community Ground Rules

Setting the Stage- Welcome to Nutrition class. I am looking forward to our class and time together. It is always so exciting to begin a new class and I love and care about this subject matter so much that it is truly a joy to share the information and engage with all of my students as we evolve our knowledge together.  

I know that all of you are coming into this class with diverse backgrounds, stories, and experiences with regards to life, online learning and communication. I feel it is incredibly important for all of us to begin this class with some online community ground rules that will help us to communicate and engage effectively and respectfully so that we may all have positive, online interactions and thus a great learning experience.  

In my experience, it becomes critical for all of us in the class to remember that we are all human, and with that comes our emotions, stressors, good days and bad days etc. With that in mind, as we communicate with each other via the online course, let us always try our best to reach out and connect with one another from a place of empathy, respect and compassion. We are all our own individuals with our thoughts, feelings and perspectives. We are not always going to agree, and if we did that would be boring, but when we disagree on certain topics let us remember to respect our difference of opinions. Debate and discussion are critical to developing our minds and evaluating our thoughts and beliefs and as this comes up in the class, let us all remember to try to see the many sides of a subject so that we may reach our best understanding.  

Another important aspect to be aware of as we communicate throughout our course, is that there may be times when there are misunderstandings and misinterpretations of messages, words and information shared. Online communication is very different than in person communication in which it is easier to get a sense for tone, meaning and context. If at any point there is a glitch with a message or statement and its context or intention, please be sure to ask for clarification if needed.  Nutrition and in particular individual nutrition choices are very personal topics and there are many factors influencing our decisions regarding the food we choose to eat. It will help us all to keep this in mind as we answer questions, apply research, and respond to each others’ thoughts along the way. We are all learning from each other at all times and as long as we can move forward together and try our best both academically and with regards to our online interactions then I have no doubt we will have a great class together. I encourage you at all times to ask the questions that come to mind, this is how we truly learn. You can ask me anything at any point and I will try my best to help. My request to you all is that during this class as we reach out to one another and interact that it is always done with respect and kindness.

Last but not least and just as important for laying our groundwork for class, is the subject of academic honesty and integrity. Learning requires time, energy, and effort. It is truly rewarding because of this fact. At all times, please be sure that you are doing your own work and that what you submit and share is based on your own sweat equity and time and thus is honest. Researching and reading for information and then being sure to reference and acknowledge the shoulders you stood on in formulating your thoughts and writing is critical. This is the definition of academic honesty and integrity. If at any point, there are struggles or questions with how to cite sources, reference research or be sure that you are not plagiarizing, please reach out to me or the many CCV resources such as etutoring to help ensure academic honesty.