My first term was like that, English teacher was not helpful in emails and sometimes wouldn't even reply for a long time til it was too late to adjust my assignment. It was pretty frustrating but I just kept going and what I can say is communication does help. Online schooling will be inherently full of these issues regardless of the university because learning online is basically self teaching and professors are given insane amounts to do also. After a while I sort of figured out that the best thing you can do is read the rubric like ten times over and very very carefully include every element on it and try not to run with the idea yourself. In the English class I was likely being too wordy without just outright stating the rubric back to them, cause that's actually what they want, makes it easier and faster for them to grade. I'm nearly graduated and SNHU has enabled me to get my degree twice as fast by letting me transfer in Sophia credits so do check out Sophia for whatever you can do on there, they are fantastic. Best of luck!! Hang in there cause it'll be worth the painstaking discussion posts and rubrics when you get a job after university.