Distance Learning Vocabulary

Using distance learning to acquire an online education requires access to the internet and or the web. Courses at the University of Phoenix are set up in an electronic forum. The electronic forum allows you to engage with other students as well as your instructor in an asynchronous form of communication. Asynchronous communication allows all parties to be able to communicate at the same time by reading and responding to messages based on your schedule rather than a synchronized clock for both the sender and receiver. Each student in class is graded weekly with a participation grade which consists of answering 2 DQ questions posted by the instructor and replying to 3 other student’s postings for both questions. These questions are read by both the instructor and other students and then replied to through feedback. This feedback is vital because it gives the individual student the right to express their personal opinion and then give other students the right to respond back with their own opinion. There is no right or wrong answer and another student’s response can either be taken as constructive criticism or another way of logically looking at things. This is what is referred to as a threaded discussion.

Class Forum

Main * A message replying to a discussion question or discussion thread

Chat room * A message responding to a classmate’s bio * A message about clarifying assignment instruction

Course Materials

Individual Forum * A message intended for your instructor concerning feedback you received on an assignment. * A message about clarifying assignment instruction