Managing online communities: An

e-moderation collaboratively constructed

paper

TEADIRA PÉREZ

RAYMOND MARQUINA

Faculty of Humanities and Education

University of Los Andes

The 9th WSEAS International Conference on E-

ACTIVITIES 2010

WHY A PROPOSAL?

A Proposal (collaboratively created and edited document) for:

Organizing virtual events.

Guiding e-moderators to assist e-speakers during their e-presentations.

THIS PRESENTATION WILL SHOW:

Guidelines for moderating video-

conferences.

Results from a survey.

Recommendations.

A COLABORATIVE CONSTRUCTED PAPER FOR E-MODERATION: OBJECTIVES

Support academic events and/or activities using on-line platforms that allow users to communicate synchronously and work collaboratively through multimedia content (audio, text and video).

  Register the paper under the Creative Commons License in

order to be used and validated by different people using on-line platforms.

  Analyze participants’ feedback and use this information to edit

this document.

Publish a final document, under the Creative Common License, edited collaboratively considering the feedback generated from different on-line scenarios and e-moderators

THE E-MODERATION PAPER

WHY VIDEO-CONFERENCES?

Online video-conference platforms

Synchronous communication – real-time

communication.

Gather educators worldwide to share and discuss topics of their interest and expertise.

WHY E-MODERATORS?

To assist logistically and technically the e-presenter and the audience.

PlanOrganizeMonitorEvaluate

E-MODERATORS -GUIDELINES

Guidelines

•e-moderators make decisions about the agenda, the netiquette, the general guidelines, among others, to successfully run on-line events.

THE SURVEY RESULTS1000 PARTICIPANTS- 212 RESPONSES

E-moderators play multiple roles: are they really needed?E-moderators are needed – to facilitate communication and interaction, to guarantee access to the e-platform and to manage it.

Organized, motivating, encouraging, approachable, flexible and IT competent.

E-moderators´ skills: only IT experts?

Pedagogical role: they need to know how to pace the discussion and use on-line time and to be able to be polite and respectful in on-line written and oral communication

Social role: they need to know when to use on-line strategies for interaction in order to introduce the audience to e-presenter.

Technical role: They need to be confident in the operational understanding of the e-platform.

Managerial or organizational role: e-moderators’ need to establish an on-line identity and show a positive attitude, commitment and enthusiasm.

GUIDELINES FOR E-MODERATION

Before During After

Select the video-conference platform.

Manage and administer the e-platform effectively to allow equal participation.

Write and share via social networks a summary of the main issues discussed during the video-conference.

Configure the video-conference session.

Have an alternative plan in case technical problems may arise.

Find ways of hosting an open-forum to promote discussion between the e-presenter and the audience.

Identify the e-moderators Have audio and text control.

Define the e-tool that e-moderators are going to use for communication.

Socialize with the audience while technically setting up the e-platform before the e-presentation and after the round of questions.

Download the video-conference recording to edit it and create a reduced version.

Before During After

Create a database to register the contact details of e-moderators and e-presenters.

Establish turn taking and the protocol for the chat.

Upload video-conferences to a video channel to create an open repository.

Elaborate technical guidelines in case the e-presenter needs extra resources.

Close the video-conference providing a final comment to the audience.

Ask for participant´s feedback through an online survey.

Evaluate participant´s feedback in order to edit these guidelines.

GUIDELINES FOR E-MODERATION

RECOMENDATIONS

IT skillsHave enough IT skills to manage

and administer the platform.

Organize training sessions with e-

presenters before the video-

conference. Plan training sessions

with less trained e-moderators

PlanOrganize and plan video-conferences jointly with the e-moderation team and the general

organizing committee of the

on-line event.

Have an agenda and an alternative plan in case any

technical problem arises.

Manage

Be sure all the video-conference

material is organized and

uploaded to the on-line platform

before the video-conference.

CONCLUSION

Collaborative work

E-moderators (skills –roles)

Validate

Experts in the area and on-line events organizers are still needed to use these guidelines and validate them in order to continue enriching this experience and opening windows to the e-moderation world.

TEADIRA PÉREZ: teadira@ula.ve RAYMOND MARQUINA: raymond@ula.ve

THANKS!