What to Watch for When Moderating a Discussion

Here are some pointers and ideas to use when facilitating a discussion or group work.

- Anticipate realistically how many interactions are possible between the number of participants, and the number of times they will login within the allowed time period.

- Be sure you clarify upfront what will be required of participants: number of times/week to be online and the number of expected posted messages.

- Be clear what the purpose and expected outcomes are for the discussion. Keep it simple.

- Assess how personalities, learning levels and confidence may vary among your group members.

- Watch for topic drift. Steer the discussion with regular weaving messages.

- Model the use of "discussion tags". When responding to a message or comment, end with a sentence such as, "Anyway, these are my thoughts, but I am sure there are other perspectives as well."

- Will you evaluate participants on number of responses, length of responses or quality of responses, or only by their having read all posted messages? Do your participants know how their participation will be evaluated?

- How will you use private email to supplement the public conference? Use your one-on-one relationship for encouragement. Use private email to advise students on what they are doing right or could do better.

- Ask "leading" questions and resist being too chatty yourself. Give students time enough to respond.

- "Flaming" is the term for negative, hostile interaction. Be ready for it when it happens. You may have to decide when you will censor messages, or ban participants. You must be ready to serve as the arbitrator when conflicts arise.

- Always bring a discussion to closure and provide assessment measures for the group and/or each participant. One option is to post the entire transcript for review.