Participate Respectfully.

In every class there are students who like to answer every question, students who would like to answer questions, but might not get the opportunity, and students who prefer to listen.

If you are a student who likes to answer all the time – back off a bit

• Leave space for others to speak.
• Don’t interrupt someone who is already sharing their idea.
• Don’t jump in on the end of a sentence – someone might not be finished

If you are a student who likes to answer but you feel you are not getting the opportunity to:

• Try changing seats. Instructors may unintentionally take questions more from one side than the other.
• Be bolder. Speak up.
• Claim your space to talk, don’t always defer to the over-sharer.

If you are a student who prefers to listen:

• Just listening is fine but can be mistaken for not participating.
• Be sure that you are actively listening, use your body language to show that you are engaged with the speakers.
• Try speaking up at least once or twice per class. It is important to share information and you might have the answer the group is looking for!

Conclusion

Natural gas is an industry that depends on its labour force to be engaged, active and busy. As they say, time is money and when workers or supervisors are late, it can delay work, cause safety issues and job loss.

There is no better time to start practicing being on-time, prepared and present than in this course. If you go on to work in the natural gas industry, it is likely that some of the people in the course with you will become part of your working community. Communities support each other and work together.

For the duration of this course, this is a learning community—work together to make it a great and useful experience!

Suggested Reading

• There is no suggested reading for this module