Covenants - A Practical Example
Another way of creating safety in your learning community is through the adoption of a Learning Covenant. Invite your learners to read and agree to abide by a set of community norms before they meet in online discussion. You could have learners write a short e-mail note expressing their consent.
Below is an example, from the The Fisher's Net, of an online learning covenant that you can adapt for use in your own course.