Comments on: Ten tips for online moderators

By: Steve Hargadon

Steve Hargadon — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:03:02 +0000

Great tip. I’ve had my own Internet connection go down a couple of times when I was moderating, so now I always have a second computer logged into a session I’m leading which uses a different connection (my cellular broadband). Seems like a lot of work, but for an important session I’m comforted by the backup.

By: Stylianos Mystakidis

Stylianos Mystakidis — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:53:03 +0000

Thank you Graham for the meaningful tips. I would also suggest

- a radio producer attitude during presentation extending Paul’s suggestion with music as well as audio pauses.
- if possible have a second pc in sight logged in as student so as to observe things from the angle of the participant.
- providing participants a technical assistance channel if possible also via telephone
- having an alternative delivery tool in case the synchronous e-learning platform crashes. Skype especially now with screen sharing & ustream for broadcasting to larger numbers of participants works for me.

Greetings,

By: Andy Powell

Andy Powell — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:53:47 +0000

My experience is very limited in this regard but I have noticed that even lightweight attempts to formalise meetings, e.g. using the ‘hand-up’ feature in systems like Elluminate, can be enough of a barrier that people won’t start a conversation.

I did a similar experiment in Second Life where I tried to formalise the normally chaotic chat-based discussions with an automated chair that encouraged people to virtually “put their hand up” before chatting – again, it completely killed any discussion. In fact, normal discussion only started after I relented and turned the system off.

By: Paul Richardson

Paul Richardson — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:43:15 +0000

No new category from me, but under #4 or #6, you could add “include music!”. It worked well in a session you did a while back. Avoid cliches, obviously, no Four Seasons…..