When designing communication interaction in distance education, take into account that Internet is not a confidential or private communication medium . In comparison, verbal messages spoken in a face-to face communication will be received only the people who are immediately present and such messages are usually not permanently recorded, so the person who said it will rarely have serious negative consequences, if the message was not abusive, malicious or too careless. The communication conditions are completely different in Internet communication (if the message sender is not anonymous, of course).
Compared to face-to-face communication, using the Internet significantly changes the communication situation for the interlocutors. First of all, the content of communication is much more easily accessible to other people which the message sender did not have in mind. For example, the content of confidential conversation during private electronic communication or discussion on a forum can become available to different unwanted people. Private e-mails can be forwarded to a large number of unforeseen people, other people can be easily warned of a web page with some private forum discussion, and textual messages in discussions can easily be multiplied (e.g. "copy and paste" part of a chat discussion) and permanently saved or sent to the receiver the message was not intended for.
During e-education the participants find themselves in situations where their knowledge and abilities are checked , and have to discuss topics which sometimes require them to express personal attitudes and values in discussion forums. A simple statistical evaluation shows that approximately one half of the participants in a group will have average or even below-the-average abilities, while some of the participants in the same group will have above-the-average abilities. This means that at least part of the participants will notice that, based on their results in group online education activities, others could perceive them as weaker, possibly even inferior in a given group. Although similar processes happen in face-to-face environments, their consequences are much different in distance education, as numerous factors of weaker abilities and knowledge of the weaker participants remain permanently recorded and much more available to the other participants.
Technical characteristics of the computer medium and the Internet enable a more detailed recording of different activities and results of the participants of online education, than is the case in face-to-face instruction. Because of the numerous data which are permanently recorded during online education, some participants can experience a sense of unease or privacy invasion , especially if the rules which the owners and users of an LMS will have to observe, having in mind the participants’ right to privacy.
Clearly defining the rules related to the privacy of the participants of online education will significantly increase their security and satisfaction with the use of a certain system for distance education, but the norms of behaviour of all the distance education participants and related to their privacy are also very important, which should be observed by instructors and participants in particular, but also by LMS administrators.
Tips & tricks: Do a detailed research of all the possible disruptions of the e-education participants’ privacy and try to remove all situations in which violation of their privacy rights could occur by creating appropriate technical conditions, by forming an appropriate organization of communication activities, defining the norms for mutual communication and relationships between the online participants and constant encouragement to honour these norms.
