We are pleased to announce that we are hosting an online course on E-Moderating. The five-week course is taught and facilitated by Dr. Gilly Salmon and her colleagues. The course is based on Dr. Salmon’s best selling book: E-Moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online.
There are a number of start dates available in 2004. The cost of the course is $435 US and requires about 5 hours per week of time. Each course offering is limited in size to 15 students.
Introduction to the Course
E-moderators are the new generation of teachers and trainers who work with learners online. I hope this course will ‘strike a spark’ and help make the online world a creative, happy, productive and relevant place for successful learning.
Small factions of teachers, researchers and trainers have led the way in working out what helps us to become successful e-moderators. This course will give you the experience of learning online with others, and offers you exploration of these newest usable and applied ideas about e-moderation.
You will need some commitment. Please put aside at least 5 hours a week for 5 weeks. Try, also, to review and reflect on your ideas about e-moderating and those of others as you go about your usual every day work or in downtime- traveling or in the bath!
The online course is divided up into 5 sessions, which relate to the 5-stage model. As a student in the course you will be expected to read the weekly assigned reading and take part in a number of online activities that we call e-tivities
Aims and Objectives of the Course
The aims of the course are to:
• Provide you with the skills to access and use specially designed conferencing system (from now called online conferencing) and to undertake a range of tasks online.
• Provide you with the experience and confidence to use the online conferencing system as a key resource in building an online learning community.
The Five-Stage Model
The course is based on the five-step model. This model, how it was researched and developed, is explained in much more detail in chapter 2 of the book. Here’s a summary: Individual access and the ability of participants to use CMC are essential prerequisites for conference participation (stage one, at the base of the flights of steps). Stage two involves individual participants establishing their online identities and then finding others with whom to interact. At stage three, participants give information relevant to the course to each other. Up to and including stage three, a form of co-operation occurs, i.e. support for each personÕs goals. At stage four, course-related group discussions occur and the interaction becomes more collaborative. The communication depends on the establishment of common
understandings. At stage five, participants look for more benefits from the system to help them achieve personal goals, explore how to integrate CMC into other forms of learning and reflect on the learning processes.
Each stage requires participants to master certain technical skills (shown in the bottom left of each step). Each stage calls for different e-moderating skills (shown on the right top of each step). The Òinteractivity barÓ running along the right of the flight of steps suggests the intensity of interactivity that you can expect between the participants at each stage. At first, at stage one, they interact only with one or two others. After stage two, the numbers of others with whom they interact, and the frequency, gradually increases, although stage five often results in a return to more individual pursuits.
Course Outline
The course is a combination of reading and participation in online activities.
Access (Week 1)
• Getting people communicating
• Encouraging participation
• The value of being a reflective learner
Socialization (Week 2)
• Understanding asynchronous working
• Principles of online working
• Message format
• Direct or conference responses
• Legal issues
• Standards of response
Information Exchange (Week 3)
• Starting to exchange
• Handling information
• Sources of information
• Holding back
Knowledge Construction (Week 4)
• 7 steps in discussions online
• Designing e-tivities
Development (Week 5)
• Looking back
• Building a development plan
• Providing appropriate support
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