Online courses present the opportunity for a different portion of the student population to become muted than traditional classes do. Selfe (1999) points out the importance of technological literacy, and how class lines dramatically impact this type of literacy. There is no question that a moderate level of technological literacy is needed to take an online course. If a student perceives that their level of computer expertise is inadequate, distress can follow. Hara and Kling (1999) refer to this as "communication anxiety": without social cues such as facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice, students experience anxiety over whether their communication is being understood or not. This anxiety can be magnified when the student is aware of the fact that the communication likely affects their course grade. Muting can occur from either the actual lack of technological literacy on the student’s part or the anxiety that the student experiences. The following example illustrates both. The student emailed the instructor individually on the dates listed, expressing her ongoing concerns:
Oct 5: Can I please meet with you sometime early next week? I just want to touch ground with you about our next writing assignment.
Oct 18: I am sorry for my delay in posting my rough draft but I have been having many troubles signing in to the discussion page . . . and it just worked now and I cannot find the disk that I saved it on, but I will. Sorry that I didn’t email you but I only had your email on the web board. I will post my draft as soon as I find it. I just wanted to let you know what was going on. Thank you, and again, I’m sorry.
Sept. 26: I have now reviewed M’s and G’s papers but I swear to God the notes thing wouldn’t work for me on my computer, I have tried everything. This is why I was so far behind in getting the reviews in. I am so sorry. I really want to meet with you. I have some general questions that I would like to ask you. Also, is there something I am not doing right? I’m very nervous!
This student was having some trouble with the technological aspects of the course, and was very aware of this as well, scheduling face-to-face conferences with the instructor to make sure she hadn’t forgotten to do any course work. Of course, all the assignments were posted online, but this student needed the comfort of face-to-face contact. Ultimately, these brief conferences with the instructor weren’t enough to alleviate the student’s distress; she dropped the course two weeks after the final email listed above. Whether or not her perception was accurate, this student felt muted by the online course experience. Teachers of online writing classes need to pay close attention not only to students' anxieties about writing (topic selection, revision, editing, etc.), but also to the clues that might indicate anxiety about their technological literacy. Online teachers should be prepared to not only provide explicit instructions on the content of assignments, but also to provide additional clarification on how to successfully navigate the courseware.