We have all been there: you enter the online lesson room, show yourself on the camera, and a few minutes later switch it off. People do it for various reasons: some are shy, and some don’t want their teachers to see that they are not focusing on the lesson. But if you ever tried talking to a group of faceless avatars on your screen, you will know how uncomfortable an experience it is. Teachers need to have contact with their students when teaching online, just as they would in a normal classroom. This helps them to have a relationship with the group. It’s good to show your teacher some understanding of these things and leave your cam on.

I will never forget one lesson, in which I really made a fool of myself. I had overslept that morning and only had time to put my school jumper on before the class. When I had to stand up to reach for a book during my lesson, suddenly everyone saw that I was wearing my pyjama trousers! Well, this wasn’t amusing at that time. Remember that many details are well visible on your camera, so tidy up your room and make sure you are wearing suitable clothes before you connect. Watch out for background noises, too. Your younger siblings crying in another room and a barking dog may disturb your peers in an online lesson, so mute the microphone when this happens.

Being in an online lesson, you'll have great opportunities to network with other students. But don’t take advantage of your connection with the other people in your online classroom to forward emails and links regarding your political or spiritual beliefs or to sell them something. Not only can it be illegal, but it is also a serious breach of the netiquette.

Always make an effort to use proper punctuation, spelling, and grammar. Trying to make out the meaning of misspelt words with unclear punctuation frustrates the reader and distracts your attention from the point of your message. While this is something you should pay attention to for all your virtual communication, it’s especially important for the papers and assignments you’ll have to turn in. After all, you wouldn’t want to fail just because of a few missing commas, would you?

Every day may feel like casual Friday in an online classroom where you don’t see anyone in person. Still, a certain level of formality is still expected in your communication with teachers. In addition to proper punctuation and spelling, it’s good manners to be polite, use full sentences, and even the same old “please” and “thank you” you use in real life.

Emoticons, or emojis, are a useful way to hint to other students that you are happy, amused, sad, or angry. It’s totally correct to use them in a student forum or when chatting with your online classroom friends. But in formal emails or messages to a teacher, they may not be fine. Spare teachers your emojis and never use them in tests or assignments; they may even lower your mark sometimes!

If you don’t need to handwrite assignments and hand them to your teacher in person, knowing how to properly submit your work online is key to your success as an online student. Teachers will tell you how they want you to send your essays and homework, so ignoring this information is seen as bad netiquette.

A comment spoken in class can be forgotten a few minutes later, but what you share in an online classroom or send in an email will stay. You should always check your emails to teachers carefully before sending them. Spelling and grammar are important elements of netiquette.

Whether or not privacy settings are in place, the internet has a tendency to house things forever, and what you say privately can easily become public. Don’t share personal information about yourself in a chat or a public online forum, especially something that could put your safety or security at risk.

Just as we care for protection of our personal details on the internet, we should also protect other people’s privacy. Remember never to give out another student’s personal email address or other details without permission. Posting other students’ or teachers’ pictures, or even tagging them on learning platforms or social media, is something you should never do unless you make sure they are completely comfortable with it.