OnlineProfessor

With all the tools available to students today, one would think that their work would be top-rate and error free. However, any tool can cause more trouble than it’s worth if it’s not used wisely. Here are some tips to keep in mind.

Making Friends with Our Technology:

• Grammar and Spell-check functions do not catch every mistake. No computer platform can replace a careful human review. So don’t over-rely on these tools.
• Copy-paste is easy but it can be messy. Some students input everything into Microsoft Word or some other, equivalent platform so they can use the system’s spell-check and grammar-check functions. That’s great thinking. But when they copy-paste into the online course platform and hit “save/submit,” sometimes odd symbols and characters show up, making their entry look cluttered and unprofessional. A workaround: once you’re finished working in MS Word, Save As a .txt file. Close out. Re-open the .txt version of the document; then copy-paste from there. (There might be an easier, alternate way, and if you have one, please share it in a comment.)
• Create a clear document naming system. Many students have so many versions of their work that they submit the incorrect one for grading. It’s a silly error that can be avoided if you name your documents properly. Use terms like DRAFT1, DRAFT2, REVISED, and FINAL to distinguish your project files. Only use “FINAL” title for the one document that’s ready to be submitted.
• Double-check the MLA and AP auto-formatting. MLA, AP and whatever other style of documentation are way too complex to fully rely on an auto-formatting system. Sometimes, the tools are more complicated than manually documenting your sources. So experiment and see what works for you. Remember, if you don’t know the basic tenets of the citation style, it will be very hard to properly use a software platform to do it for you.

If you have other suggestions, comments or questions, feel free to share them with us by submitting a comment.

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