Session 3 Moderating an online conversation

Profiles

Many online learning platforms have an area where you can provide information about yourself. This is called a profile. Sharing personal profiles offers the opportunity to find out a little about each person, and is another way to get a sense of who they are and build the community. In your profile you will need a brief note about yourself, your specialisms, the area you live in, your hobbies, etc.

It is not intended to provide a full and detailed history, so it is best to keep it short and sweet. Providing a photo isn’t obligatory, but it can help people feel that they are communicating with a real person and so create a friendly atmosphere online. You should not, however, provide any personal information such as your address or telephone number, as this may lead to unwanted contact and even lead to you feeling unsafe.

Tone and standards

Throughout your conversations with students your tone should be friendly and welcoming. Be clear about the standards you expect in the conversation, such as respect of other learners opinions and no bad language. There may be a code of conduct for the platform you are working on that you could refer to.

Group size

In online courses, active participation may be optional or in some cases participation in an online activity could be assessed. Numbers of active participants in an online conversation may also vary with the appeal and relevance of the discussion. Many learners will simply read comments left by others – which is perfectly acceptable, as those learners are still progressing on their learning journeys.

Your role as a facilitator is defined by the size of the group and the expectations of their participation.

Filtering

On some online platforms it is possible to ‘filter’ messages, which can be very useful if you have hundreds or even thousands of comments posted at each stage of the course. The volume of posts could then become very daunting and it can be difficult for the online facilitator to know where to start. If this filtering feature is available then it can be useful for filtering comments in discussion. Other features that may exist on an online platform that can be linked to filtering are ‘following’ where you or other learners can follow particular learners, and ‘liking’ where learners can select an icon and ‘like’ a post. This ‘like’ feature is widely used on social platforms such as Facebook.

You may be able to filter a conversation by:

• Everyone: This is usually default setting that lists all posts.
• Following: This option lists posts from learners you have selected to follow.
• Most liked: Lists the posts that have had the ‘Like’ link clicked. This filter lists these posts by most popular first
• My comments: Lists the contributions that you have added. This filter can be especially useful if you need to check back to see what you have written in respect to specific posts.

Helping learners navigate

Sometimes learners are not clear as to how to use and navigate these discussions, making some comments appear disjointed. Part of your role as a facilitator is to encourage learners to read and engage with these online discussions, so it is important to steer them in the right direction.

You can do this by doing the following:

• Encouraging students to engage with the most recent comments and draw their attention to use the filters, such as ‘Most liked’, explained above.

• Make it clear how to engage in discussion in this type of comments stream. You could point out that doing this would:

1. allow people from different parts of the country to share expertise, resources and points of view
2. provide a range of opinions
3. generate a valuable resource for learners who want to spend more time on a step.

If learners mention any confusion or frustration with the comments or discussion stream, it may be helpful and reassuring to restate some of the points listed above.

Keeping the momentum going

It’s good practice to get into the habit of responding promptly to the learners’ messages in the initial stages of their online experience. This helps to build their confidence and reassures them that someone is really out there.

Keeping discussions well organised and on track is also an important part of the facilitator role. You might expect that all replies in a discussion topic would be about the same subject; however, online discussions are really no different from face-to-face ones, in that learners often deviate from the original subject. You may, therefore, need to redirect users to the appropriate places. In order to keep up to date with developments, you may be able to follow your learners or sign up to receive emails to see what they have commented on.

Weaving

Keeping discussions moving along and enabling learners to reflect on what they are saying is a key skill of the facilitators’ role. It is referred to as ‘weaving’. You will see that this is similar to facilitating a face-to-face discussion, where you may need to reinforce points made and then follow up with a question. For example: 

Summarising

It can be difficult to follow a debate in an online conversation because it may take place over days or weeks, with many dead ends along the way. Maintain interest in the conversation by summarising, which draws together major points and refocuses learners’ attention. It is good idea to summarise after 10 to 20 contributions.

Editing and removing posts

Sometimes it might be necessary to edit or remove a post from a discussion. It’s a good idea to make a plan of what you will do in this situation. You may consider editing or removing a post if the learner is:

• sharing personal information such as an email address or phone number
• sharing private information such as a serious health issue or details of a conflict
• making an inappropriate comment about another learner
• stating a controversial or politically incorrect opinion.

In each of these cases, the details of the post will dictate your actions. It might be that you can just replace personal information with square brackets, for example. With an inappropriate comment or opinion you may need to remove the whole post.

If you remove of edit a post, it should be in done in line with some overall forum guidelines on what is and what is not acceptable so that you are not just enforcing your own personal views. Always explain to the learner what you have removed and your reasons for doing so. Do this in a private space, such as via email or private message, to avoid further embarrassment for the learner.

Recognising patterns of online behaviour

You might notice different patterns of behaviour from people online. These behaviours will have a huge influence on both how you moderate and also how the learners interact with each other.

Rule 1: Write well

It is important to remember that writing is the main form of communication online and so it is important to write clearly and succinctly. Some ways of achieving this are as follows:

• Be short, concise and organised; avoid long, rambling or confusing messages. If you have something lengthy to say, consider writing a separate document (e.g. in Word) that you can attach to a brief covering message.
• Take the time to edit your messages. If you need to think before you send, then you can save a draft of your message. Before sending an angry message, stop and take a break, and consider whether a milder tone would be more appropriate.
• Remember, IF YOU WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS or use exclamation marks !!!!!! IT WILL COME OVER AS SHOUTING. You may be surprised at the responses you receive.
• Neatness, proper grammar and spelling do matter, although as a reader you should also make allowances for others’ typing skills.
• Think carefully about the number of questions you pose. Too many questions will confuse learners and dilute responses to the key questions. Ask direct questions to get the discussion back on topic.

Rule 2: Follow proper ‘netiquette’

Netiquette simply refers to online etiquette or the practice of courtesy and respect in an online environment. Here is some guidance:

• DON’T say anything online that you wouldn’t be willing to say to someone face-to-face.
• DON’T say highly negative, insulting or disparaging things about your fellow learners or their views online (this practice, called ‘flaming’, is viewed as very poor behaviour).
• DO state your views confidently but kindly, including your differences of opinion.
• DO give someone the benefit of the doubt if you’re unsure about the meaning or tone of a comment.
• DO make allowances for others typing skills when reading posts. DON’T judge the quality of a post by the quality of the typing.
• DO consider using emoticons as a way of showing your mood or facial expression as these can enhance learners’ understanding of your posts. (See Wikipedia’s list of emoticons alongside their meaning.) You could also describe your mood in brackets, for example ‘(I’m being serious)’. Note that the use of emoticons may need to be done with care, as they could display differently for different people and less common emoticons may not be widely understood.
• DO keep a sense of humour – remember that online learning will be new and unfamiliar territory to many on the course.
• DO consider using pictures or audio files. They can be a great way to initiate discussion and reflection, and can sometimes be worth a paragraph of text.

Rule 3: Use your social presence

‘Social presence’ refers to the way that individuals represent themselves in their online environment and how learners relate to each other. Social presence is therefore hugely important in helping people communicate effectively. There are three ways in which a person’s social presence can be demonstrated online:

1. affective – communicate emotion, values, attitudes or beliefs through language
2. interactive – respond and interact directly with others’ messages
3. cohesive – use language as behaviour designed to reinforce the group’s sense of itself as a learning community.

Table 5, again adapted from Sener Knowledge LLC, provides instances and examples of ways in which you can use your social presence online.