3.3 Maintaining the conversation

Group size

In every online course, active participation is optional. Numbers of participants may 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

In many courses there may be hundreds or even thousands of comments posted at each stage, which can mean that knowing where to start can feel a bit daunting. Use the filters within the comments and discussion sections to help.

You can filter the comments by:

• Everyone: The 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 around the world 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.

Housekeeping 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, reinforcing points made and then following it 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.

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.