Image of many foods in bowls on a table. Image by Nathaniel Yeo on Unsplash.

• Knowing when and what type of question to ask in college is much like eating dinner with a new friend's family: context matters. With some families, guests are encouraged to serve themselves first. With other families, the elders always go first. So too with asking questions in college courses, context matters.
• As a general rule*, college faculty want students to ask as many questions as they have as soon as conveniently possible. If a question is about a factual error, such was the case with Maria and the differences between what her professor and the textbook indicated, asking as soon as possible is generally best. Imagine if Maria waited until the end of the lecture, and the professor spoke all the way until the end of the synchronous time, leaving no time for questions?
• The biggest most important difference between face to face and distance digital courses when it comes to questions is that students should ask questions about small issues as early as possible with distance digital courses. Answering questions in a digital environment often takes more time than in a face-to-face environment. A simple "hey, professor, did you mean to say 19th century, not 20th century?" in an online course can be three emails between one student and their professor and then an email from the professor to the whole class, which might take 36 hours. As well, little issues can be addressed before they become big issues.
• Even for experienced college students, asking questions about small issues feels culturally odd during distance digital courses, like you just jumped in front of great-grandma for food at your friend's dinner party. That is ok. Part of learning to be a successful student in a distance digital course is learning the cultural context of the course and your college. The online context is different than the face-to-face context, and so asking questions becomes more important.
• Some faculty have clear expectations for how, when, or what types of questions they would like. For example, some faculty ask students to write all their questions in one place on the course web page, so that all students can read them. If faculty have a preference, they should tell you, the students. Otherwise, feel free to raise your questions as soon as you have them. Asking questions is how learning happens: go for it!

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Connecting digital and analog worlds