Mistake 3: more expectation mismatch as to the essential nature of this particular class. The program as a whole is Blackboard-based, and courses are pitched as involving phone and video interaction with the instructors, as well as message board and video interaction with the other students. The new student orientation was a hugely chaotic and enjoyable web conference, and she excitedly logged on to Blackboard the next day - to discover that her class doesn't use Blackboard for anything except downloading the assignment list, that there was no interaction with other students, and that her instructor had a full page of nitpicky rules for communicating with him by email (including an exacting format for email subject lines, and a "no contractions" rule). IMHO, those differences should have been incorporated into the syllabus, so she'd know what to expect.
My 2 kids have taken a total of 5 GLL classes involving a total of 3 instructors over the past year. We find the use of audio/video online class sessions is highly variable from class to class, depending on the instructor. Our kids have found the online sessions a highlight, for those classes that featured them. I agree that it would be very helpful to see syllabi in advance that provided information about how students will interact with the teacher and other students. Your dd's teacher sounds particularly harsh compared to our (small) sample. Leave it to a grammarian to have rules about using contractions!!!
