Table of contents
Welcome……………………………………………………….2
Login……………………………………………………………2
Classroom……………………………….…………………….3
Main forum…………………………………………………….4
Chat forum…………………………………………………….7
Learning team forum…………………………………………8
Individual forum……………………………………………….8
Conclusion…………………………………………………….9
Glossary………………………………………………………10
References……………………………………………………11

Online Discussion Forum
Welcome
Welcome, and congratulations on enrolling at the University of Phoenix. Deciding to further your education is a great leap towards living a better future. Since you have decided to enroll at the University of Phoenix, you have realized that a great deal of commitment and dedication is required to succeed in school, life, and your future career. We at the University of Phoenix realize that this can be difficult at times, as some students have families, full time jobs, or serving our country in the United States Armed Forces, so we put together a tutorial on how to access and use your new OLS student forums, access and understand the class materials, effectively communicate in the forums and the instant messenger chat, how to post to your personal forum, and post assignments. We at the University of Phoenix commend you for deciding to further your education and creating a brighter future for yourself.
Login
The University of Phoenix (UOP) is designed to allow its students to succeed. This is done through an online format. Students are required to logon to the UOP website at ecampus.phoenix.edu and enter their password to participate in their classes.

Once the student has logged on, they are directed to the University’s home page. In the red bar, next to the Home tab, notice a Classroom tab. Highlight this tab and left-click it once with the mouse.
Welcome to your classroom
This is the main place where communication occurs between the instructor and students. Notice that directly underneath the Classroom tab there are four more tabs:
• Materials
• Discussion
• Assignments
• Grades

Main Forum
With the mouse, left-click on the Discussion tab. This is the Main Forum. The Main Forum has access to:
• Answer Discussion Questions
• Receive Instructions from the Instructor
• Direct Questions to the Instructor
• Access the Course Materials Notice the table in the middle of the screen. The table is labeled with the headings of:
• Thread
• Author
• Replies
• Last Post
Underneath the Thread heading will be a topic. There will be Welcome message, Announcements, Instructions, or Discussion Questions from the Instructor. Note: Anything from an instructor will have a next to it. Left-click on a topic, this will open the thread.
This thread or discussion differs from day-to-day. All the comments here are recorded and available for response. Any student within the class is welcome to respond at any time during the course.
Notice the additional heading under the topic clicked. These are responses. They may be a response to the original topic from your instructor, or they may be responses to other responses. This shows how the specific responses are connected.

As a student, there are requirements to respond to each Discussion Question for that particular week. In addition, there are certain requirements to contribute to the discussion by posting at least two comments for each of four separate days. This information will be explained in the course syllabus.
Left-click on reply this allows interaction with the thread. Notice a window has opened in which a response can be typed. Once the message has been typed, left-click immediately above or underneath the window. Doing this will enter the reply into the classroom discussion. Also, the response will be directly attached to the comment responded to.
There will be various symbols next to the responses. A white question mark inside a blue circle indicates a response to the Discussion Question. A white S inside a green circle indicates a satisfactory response to another comment.

REMEMBER: In order to receive credit for a satisfactory response, the reply must move the conversation forward in some manner. Simply offering agreement or thanks is not sufficient. In addition a student is required to post two times a day for four days in addition to discussion questions in order to meet requirements.
Recognize that threads in bold print are those not accessed yet by the reader. Threads not in bold print have already been opened. UOP encourages each student to read each thread in order to learn the utmost from each course. Here is where reading postings from other students may help you gain more insight to the material being taught and help finite the lessons and teachings of the week.
To return to the Main forum, left-click on Main in the Forums bar on the left. If comments have not yet been read, there will be a number in the parenthesis next to Main. This number corresponds to the number of comments not seen.

Chat Forum
Underneath Main in the Forums bar is Chat. This is where topics are discussed not relevant to the course work. These discussions may take place with any other student in the class.
Another way to chat with classmates can be found in the Tools bar on the far right of the screen. Left-click the second symbol from the top with the two speech bubbles. Notice a new window opens containing the users name and the name of any other friends who happen to be logged on. This can include students meet in other courses. As part of a learning team you may be required to use this method of communication in order to meet with your team and complete a team project and team assignment.

Learning Team Forum
Back within the Main Forum, there are tabs for the various Leaning Teams (A-F). Each student will be assigned to a learning team by the course instructor. The learning team will be classmates that will collaborate on projects and assignments.
To access the Learning Team, left-click on the corresponding tab for the assigned team. Notice the design is the same as in the Main forum. Note: The subject heading is available to enter the topic of the discussion by using .
Also, a window has opened to enter the full message. This area allows for discussions including: greetings to the team, putting forth questions, and any other interactions needed to complete assigned projects. The setting within the Learning Team Forum is much less formal than in the Main Forum. Moreover as read in the previous Chat section you see that learning team forums may require for you to use the chat forum or instant chat to communicate with your classmates for further group discussion and meeting for determining the team project details.
Individual Forum
From the Main Forum, you will see a tab for Individual Forum underneath the tabs for Learning Teams. The Individual Forum is identified by the student’s name followed by the last four digits of the student’s identification number. The Individual Forum is where your instructor communicates directly to you. No other students can access your Individual Forum. Conclusion
The classroom on the University of Phoenix website is a rich and vital part of the entire learning experience for every student. The different forums offer the opportunity to share and develop ideas during each class experience. This allows each student the chance to develop and enhance their collaboration and communication and skills.

Glossary
Chat: Informal discussion that takes place in the chat forum.
Classroom: Part of the UOP website where the actual communication between class members and instructors takes place.
Forum: A place to share and discuss ideas.
Individual forum: the student’s personal communications with the instructor including grades and feedback from assignments
Learning team: Group created by the instructor that works together on assignments.
Reply: Answer to or comment on another’s posting.
Thread: a group of two or more responses to postings that follow the same topic.

References
Dobrin, S. I., Keller, C. J., & Weisser, C. R. (2010). Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century (Select ed. 2). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Gerson, S. J., & Gerson, S. M. (2012). Technical communication. Process and Product, Seventh Edition (Select ed. 7). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
University of Phoenix. (2011). Student and Faculty Portal. Retrieved from http://ecampus.phoenix.edu