This model, The 2nd Edition of E-moderating
offers a variety of resources for e-moderators. Here are some
examples which you are welcome to try out!
How to Weave
- ‘Collect’ up all the contributions into one
message (if your software allows you to do this) or cut
and paste them into your word process
- Read through quickly and colour code the key themes
- Create a structure in the file for each of these with
titles
- Identify the unifying themes
- Identify the points of disagreement
- Summarise by a sentence or bullet point or two for each
of the themes, identifying points of agreement, disagreement,
perhaps by giving examples, attributed to the originator
- Add your ‘meta’ comments or teaching points
if you wish
- If you wish to discussion to move on, ask specific but
open ended questions
E-moderating presence online
- Many online participants expect a great deal from their
e-moderators. E-moderators try to encourage online participants
to be self sufficient. You might find some strategies to
create e-moderators ‘presence’ online ( without
having to be there 24 hours a day) helpful!
- Send out a personal e mail letter to all participants
before the course starts, indicating how often they can
expect you to visit (usually once a day).
- Greet each participant by a welcome e mail on their first
arrival, as well as in the conference
- Ask for a personal e mail to the e-moderator as well as
a message in the conference, early in the course
- Mention each participant by name at some point in early
summaries. Continue to mention individuals in your messages.
This is very motivating and a fine way to acknowledge contributions
- Run an e-tivity at stage 1 exploring how participants
expect to fit the conferencing into their daily lives, and
self-disclose a little about yours
- As the conference builds up and you find you have many
messages to read on your arrival each day, focus on the
last few messages in a thread (rather than reading them
chronologically)
- As participants become more self sufficient and motivated
(by stage 3) then avoid responding to each message but focus
on setting up discussions really well and then summarising
after a given length of time, adding your own teaching points
then if appropriate
- Be prepared to put congratulatory message up and then
an invitation to further action (e.g. very interesting points
here, can I invite a summariser, or maybe please focus on
*** aspect now to build on the ideas).
A Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) parable.
Would you like to explore multiple perspectives in the introduction
of virtual learning environments through this little parable.
How about trying it as a discussion tool in a f:f or online
workshop? New insights may emerge…
I was walking over the bridge by the river at the OU, one
fine spring day. I heard what I thought was a faint cry from
a clump of daffodils near the path. On going to investigate,
to my amazement, I found a tiny baby Virtual Learning Environment,
wrapped up in a carry basket. I took a cautious look, of course,
and found that the foundling had a note, it read ‘My
Name is BlaCT. Please look after my password. My license expires
in 28 days.’ It was a rather odd sort of baby and seemed
starved of proper feeding and attention.
I thought I really ought to try and find its real parents.
Maybe its ancestors were from Computer Based Training and
more closely though I could discern the powerful Northern
American instructivist nose. I carried it to the IT Centre,
not far away, and asked them if they knew anything about it.
They said ‘oh no, it doesn’t seem to belong to
our family and we can’t touch anything that’s
off the pathway… but it looks quite cool so you can
leave it with us to play with for a while if you like’.
However, they soon got tired of it, as it was demanding of
attention. They said ‘we’re really worried about
its interoperability when it grows up. We need the academics
to take responsibility for it, they said they wanted it’.
I couldn’t see any academics around at that time. Well
it was only 10.30 am.
So I wandered back towards my office and passed by the library.
The information officers always seem such helpful friendly
people, perhaps they would know what to do with BlaCT. They
said they had to operate 24 by 7 so couldn’t really
help me but could loan me some clothes and toys for it. They
also agreed to start a search for its origins as soon as I
returned some books.
Well I took it along to the administrators in my school.
They were quite sweet with it really. They gave it a security
badge clearly marked ‘Visitor’ they said they’d
seen all this kind of thing before and knew what to do about
it. They said there were various forms I had to fill in about
VLE foundlings and then they would put my request it to the
committee for funding, and if successful for adoption. They
told me that it’s only hope is that it’s cheap
to keep and is prepared to be centralised. However they did
warn me it would be number 36 on the agenda, and there were
a number of other candidates.
By this time, I was getting quite fond of Bla CT and had
a sudden thought…what about the university’s development
fund…after all doesn’t that offer us a wonderful
opportunity for piloting and creativity? I put the foundling
on my desk while I downloaded the Development Fund papers.
The baby shuffled around a bit and had a good chew on my FirstClass
CD ROM and a major sniff at my Blackboard users manual. A
couple of post grad students passed by and were absolutely
delighted with it, saying ‘it’s a real any time
any place kind of babe, better than lectures any day YES WICKED
!!’. The development fund objectives looked pretty hopeless.
It was clear that they thought VLE’s too good to leave
in the tender care of academics… for example did it
have a daddy to provide matched external funding?
By then my academic colleagues in my Centre had arrived to
take a look, and were saying ‘Well we could…,
or why don’t you…hey my students would love that…can
I take a closer look and evaluate it…I’ve got
an idea…let’s check out its communication tools
before we feed it…wow it has a slight Socratean look
about it….. One gave it a search for a fast forward
to promotion button but no luck! I said, "Who will help
me with parenting this child?" They said. We’d
love to Gilly, but you know we’ve no time at all this
semester…,”
I thought I’d try taking it to the Senior Executive
Committee. They said I should define my terms against the
university’s global mission and explain, with much why
I had brought this unplanned resource to them. They asked
in what way adopting foundling VLEs would help create better
access to more students at lower costs and/or ensure greater
competitiveness. I suggested that with nurturing it might
grow up to take over Microsoft but they said that do gooders
like me should be most careful, since the child might suffer
from rampant featurism in the future, for which there is no
cure. They told me that there were a number of more serious
siblings who were likely to be supported and they had to make
their mistakes, before any new approach could considered.
I persisted but they said they said they were sorry but if
they let me keep the foundling other teachers might want them
too and there was no proof it is cost effective or even, horrors,
scalable.
Finally I realised I needed to rely on my own resources,
and that if I wanted this baby VLE to thrive, or even survive,
I would need to be its champion. Perhaps I should build a
shrine called Foundlingblog and become its missionary.? Maybe
not. What would you do?
Gilly Salmon 2004
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