Online safety
Find out how you can stay safe in an online learning community.
Our commitment to you
We will strive to create psychological safety and cultural safety. We will strive to create a sense of belonging for learners of different cultures and genders, learners of diverse gender, sex or sexuality, and learners who have different access or equity needs.
We will respond to learners who contact us with concerns about the community. Please note that the turnaround time for responses from instructors can be up to 48 hours. If you have immediate concerns, please email your micro-credential Coordinator, and then call or email Student Support.
We also strive to create a community of inquiry. It's normal for learners to feel nervous about posting in threads or speaking up in webinars, but we want to remind learners that:
- We don't judge learners' grammar in discussion threads or in webinars.
- We don't judge whether learners are 'right' in our online discussions. Often, our discussions are framed such that there is no single solution, or no perfect solution.
- We encourage you to ask questions in discussions and in webinars: If you have a question, it's likely that your peers do, too!
Your role as a member of the community
Each one of our learners plays an important role in creating a safe, inclusive community. Your contributions in workshops, webinars, and in discussion threads can have impacts on others, so it's important to consider others when you participate. Here are some tips from our Collaborating Online guide:
- Be careful with humour and sarcasm.
- Respect others' points of view, even if you don't agree.
- Be aware of cultural differences, without making over-generalisations.
- Be polite; acknowledge responses to your posts and respond to others' posts.
- Never post in anger – if you're upset with something someone has written, take some time to think about how you can respond objectively, without emotion.
Keeping your information safe online
Staying safe online also means keeping your personal information safe. In your daily online activities, be careful about when and under what circumstances you give out your personal records and information. The Student IT resource on safe computing will guide you on safeguarding your system, assets and information against online threats and scams.
Email security
It's also important that you confirm the validity of an email source before you disclose any sensitive information to the sender. The Student IT resource on email security and suspicious emails includes guidelines on how to identify suspicious emails and the best course of action if you receive such mail.