Distance Education:

Facilitating student communication

Karen Anderson
Edith Cowan University


INTERNATIONALCOUNCIL
ONARCHIVES

Section for archival

education
and training

CONSEILINTERNATIONAL
DESARCHIVES

Section pour lenseignement

de larchivistique
et la formation des archivistes

EuropeanConferenceforArchivalEducatorsandTrainers
Marburg,September24th&25th2001
ReadingtheVitalSigns:ArchivalTrainingandEducationinthe
21stCentury

Overview

Aim:
to demonstrate effective communication with and
between distant students

Objectives:
introduce some communication methods for
distance education students
demonstrate use of an electronic bulletin board for
discussion and assessment

Learning outcome:
understand stages of development in e-moderated
discussion
use an electronic bulletin board for class
discussion

Communication tools
Asynchronous:

Telephone - individual
Email individual or group
Print group
Web page - group
Electronic Bulletin Boards or Computer
Moderated Conferencing - group
Synchronous:

Chat rooms - all participants log on at once

Overcoming isolation
Distance

education students often feel

very isolated
Overcoming this isolation is a big
challenge
Good access to a tutor is essential
It is most helpful if students can
communicate with each other, building
their own learning community

Chat rooms

can be difficult to organise across time zones

discussion can lack depth (limited by
keyboard skills)
it takes skill by the moderator to plan the
session and control the discussion
large groups can be broken up into smaller
groups and sent to other rooms for short subdiscussions
ask them to return and report to the whole
group at a particular time
The chat session can be captured & posted to
a BB for those who cant attend

Social chat
Students

can also use chat rooms to

meet others at pre-arranged times
without their tutor for
Friendly caf chat sessions
Informal study groups
Requires some leadership by individuals who
want to start a study group

Electronic Bulletin Boards

E-moderator (tutor) and individuals contribute

at their convenience
Allows more reflective contribution than chat
rooms
Contributions are preserved
Boards may be multipurpose: social and
study; OR
Special boards can be set up for particular
tasks or discussion groups
The e-moderator can set deadlines for tasks

Model of teaching and learning online (Salmon, 2000. p.25)

Stage 1: access & motivation

Learning

about the benefits of computer

moderated discussion boards
Learning about the course requirements
Setting up and configuring software
Navigating to the BB
Be prepared to provide help or to direct
participants to a help desk

Stage 2: social introductions

Overcoming shyness and making

introductions
Some enjoy being faceless
Others will lurk for a while before they have
the courage to contribute
Introducing netiquette
Make sure participants understand the need
to protect their own privacy and respect
others privacy

Rules for discussion groups

Be courteous: participate responsibly

Participate actively
Write clearly
Build ideas on what others say
Question the opinions of others
Actively read and question the text
Be credible: back up your statements
Stick to the subject
(Based on Shoop, 1999)

Stage 3: information exchange

Learning

to use the information

resources supplied
Learning to search & use the Internet
Sharing information
Helping others with solutions to
problems
Information overload may become a
problem
Silence is OK, but be alert for dropouts

Stages 4 & 5: knowledge

construction & development
Students

interact and respond much

more participatively
Students take responsibility for their
own learning
Introduce new discussion threads
Suggest alternative approaches
Support each other
E-moderator

a tutor

becomes a participant, not

Evaluation
Provide

opportunities for

students to reflect on their own learning

and contribution
feedback on the learning experience
evaluation of your performance as emoderator
Reflect

and revise your e-moderating

strategies

References
Salmon, Gilly. (2000). E-moderating: the key to
teaching and learning online. London: Kogan
Page. ISBN 0 7494 3110 5 http://oubs.open.ac.
uk/e-moderating/
Palloff, Rena M. and Pratt, Keith. (2001).
Lessons from the cyberspace classroom: the
realities of online teaching. San Francisco:
Jossey Bass. ISBN 0 7879 5519 1

References and Resources

Berge, Z. and Collins, M. Resources for moderators and
facilitators online
http://www.emoderators.com/moderators. shtml
Handbook for Instructors on the use of electronic class
discussions
http://www.osu.edu/education/ftad/Publications/elecdisc
/pages/home.htm
Shoop, Linda. (2000). Developing interactive competence
with student centered discussion. [Draft Manual]
http://home.kiski.net/~dwright/scd/guid.html