Moderating to the Max (book): Author Jean Bystedt. (My link is to Lisa Neal's commentary on the book.) The book's title made me think it was about moderating online discussions (online learning being my focus). The book's subtitle implies otherwise: A Full-Tilt Guide to Creative Insightful Focus Groups and Depth Interviews. However, Lisa Neal comments on some of the content of the book are very apropos for moderators of online discussions and indeed for online instructors: " I never consciously thought about how many of the skills for teaching, moderating, and presenting overlap. The introduction to the book...says that moderators need to know how to lay the ground rules for participation, help people feel comfortable, encourage responses, ask questions, probe for clarification, segue between topics, and stay on course. This is the same as teaching and presenting." 05/25/08

Synchronous Discussion in Online Courses: A Pedagogical Strategy for Taming the Chat Beast: Craig Smith says he has "...devised a protocol for virtual classroom etiquette—or "chatiquette"—based on research on classroom discourse and conversational turn-taking." He actually lists his rules within this article, so check it out! "Online instructors, particularly those who have recently begun to incorporate online components in their teaching, have good reason to feel concerned about the potential for chat sessions to become less than productive in their courses. However, the protocol of virtual class chatiquette may serve as a helpful tool as they seek to tame the chat beast in their online courses while still ensuring that synchronous communication maintains the immediacy and vitality that is often lacking in asynchronous communication. Although I am still chat room avoidant, these guidelines helped me to overcome my fears and utilize such technology more effectively and productively in my own teaching." 07/24/06

Informal Learning ~ The Power of Dialogue: Questions considered in this article -- well, in the dialogue described in the article. :) -- "What habits do we need to let go of in order to have true dialogue? When does facilitation draw attention to the process or the moderator rather than furthering the inquiry? How does dialogue emerge from among a group of strangers, and what conditions are the most evocative for true inquiry? What role does individual ego play?" Also check out the same author, Jay Cross, on What Is Informal Learning? 05/26/06

Handbook for Instructors on the Use of Electronic Class Discussion: "This handbook provides advice for instructors on one particular use of instructional technology-the use of electronic communication to extend class discussion beyond the time and place of class meetings. It is based on a study of several Ohio State classes that employed such electronic class discussions, recommendations of students and faculty, and advice from experts in the field. The main goal of the handbook is to help instructors use this form of technology thoughtfully and effectively, given their course goals." 10/23/05

Online Community Toolkit: "Thinking about building or hosting an online community? Looking for specific tips, tools and ideas? Start here." The site has many links to excellent articles on various topics around online communities, specifically targeted for facilitators. Links to courses about online facilitation; facilitation articles, tools and tips; case studies; communities of practice; and more. 03/31/05

Using Online Interaction to Break Your Addiction to Classroom Training: This page is very practical, in that it includes directions for conducting various interactive activities or games to be used as part of your course in the online classroom. " Many experts agree that interaction is the best way to produce such necessary adult learning meta-cognition activities as self-assessment and self-correction. But how do you design engaging activities? Here are some sample exercises to get you started." 11/05/04

Discussion-Based Online Teaching: "The experts [on this webpage] focus on the concept of transactional distance between students and teachers and how to reduce this distance through interesting ways of stimulating student discussion in the online class. They are from Discussion-Based Online Teaching to Enhance Student Learning: Theory, Practice, and Assessment (Stylus, October 2003), by Tisha Bender. 05/15/04

Research Insights into Interactivity: "Interactivity research studies involving online classes reveal that students value their opportunities to communicate with their peers and instructors. The author will briefly highlight student expectations for their online classes, discuss important findings from interaction studies and recommend several instructional ideas to enhance the quality of interaction in today’s distance education classes." 04/11/04

Social Networking Software -- Free Online Collaboration: thanks to Ted Ritzer for compiling this list. 02/09/04

Spelling Help in a browser! ieSpell: A free Internet Explorer browser extension that spell checks text input boxes on a webpage. The program installs as a new button in the IE toolbar. Great for students and faculty alike if you're writing a lot of online postings. 09/25/03

What’s Your Problem? Increasing Student Motivation and Quality of Participation in Discussions through Problem-Based Learning: The article refers to online discussions as a "special type of course content that might be used in a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) environment. Too often, I see online learning environments where students are asked to “read this and share your thoughts”, and this rarely results in high quality collaborative discussions. This observation, which I consider to indeed be a problem, inspired me to seek out alternative ways to engage students and increase their motivation to collaboratively think at higher levels." 08/16/03

Links to Discussion Forum tools: Several of them free to use and easy to set up. 10/28/02

phpBB: Recommended by a colleague, phpBB is "a high powered, fully scalable, and highly customisable open-source bulletin board package. phpBB has a user-friendly interface, simple and straightforward administration panel, and helpful FAQ.". 10/28/02

CourseForum: Newly developed tool for asynchronous discussions and much more. "Much more flexible than discussion-only tools, each page can not only hold a discussion on a specific topic, but also a set of questions and answers, links to supplementary course material or research, a student's note-taking from a lecture, student portfolios, or more. Everyone can contribute, and all contributions are tracked. Easily create text, links, files, projects and more." 08/22/02

Marking Compulsory Discussion Postings: Some good ideas for marking student postings appear in a discussion at the WebCT forums. But how do we get beyond subjective marking? I don't have an answer. 05/17/02

Workshops by Thaigi, Inc.: A collection of email games that can be easily adapted for discussion forums. Great ways to keep your course forum active and enjoyable. 03/06/02

Elluminate Live! From Tutor's Edge, "...an online virtual classroom environment that is customizable and easy to use... keeps students engaged with full 2-way audio, direct text messaging and a shared, interactive whiteboard—all in one intuitive, graphical interface.... includes several leading-edge features and capabilities". 02/22/02, link updated 10/03/04 (used to be vClass, now is Elluminate)

Community Zero: "an interactive website that allows a group of people to communicate and exchange information over the Internet in their own private and secure ... online community ... a suite of powerful tools that enable a group to effectively get organized, share knowledge and communicate." Key benefits: fast, easy, customizable, few technology barriers, automated knowledge archive, zero administration." 11/28/01

Guidelines for Moderating Online Educational Computer Conferences: An excellent covering of topics and concerns, including problems and solutions. 09/05/01

The written world ~ The theory and practice of computer conferencing: Andrew Feenber's model for Moderating is based on his idea that "the core of the new CMC medium is computer conferencing." This chapter covers topics like computer anxiety, managing identity, the relationship to discourse, social factors, and even gets into selection of conferencing architectures. 07/08/01

e-Moderating, the Key to Teaching & Learning Online: a new book recommended by a seminar colleague who works with the author, Gilley Salmon, at Open University.. "...considers what is required of good moderators and presents practical information for their training and development." 05/31/01

Resources for Teaching Online ~ Communication Tools: A great collection of articles and websites. Some are specifically good for educators who use WebCT communication tools. 03/28/01

Educator's guide to using WebCT's discussion forums: a tips-n-tricks article by yours truly 10/27/00

Profiler: An On-line Collaboration Tool that "inspires cooperation and collaboration among teachers and students to help them improve their skills around a general topic." 09/19/00

Resources for Moderators and Facilitators of On-line Discussion: Berge Collins Associates provides information on a range of topics 09/16/00

MOOM (Moving Out Of the Middle): Sarah Haavind of the Concord Consortium shows educators how to MOOM when moderating on-line discussions. She shares some of her strategies here. (OTL Newsletter, August 29, 2000) 09/05/00

Time Saving Strategies and Tips: for Instructors Using On-line Discussion Forums

Conferencing Software for the Web: "A comprehensive guide to software that powers discussions on the Web" 09/16/00

Tips for using discussion forums: an article by yours truly. Also has a collection of links to other articles on the same topic.