Best Practices for Moderating Course Discussions

Best Practices for Moderating Course Discussions#

Discussion forums are hugely important tools in running a successful MOOC; they allow for substantive community development, in addition to being excellent sources of feedback and ideas for future iterations of the course.

Developing and sustaining a positive discussion culture requires that a team of discussion moderators dedicates sufficient time to reviewing discussions and responding to questions from learners. Keeping up-to-date with a large MOOC forum requires a commitment of five or more hours per week, and involves reading threads, replying to and editing posts, and communicating with the rest of the discussion moderation team and other members of the course team.

Members of the course community, learners as well as course team members, can be given permission to moderate or administer course discussions through a set of discussion moderation or administration roles. The members of a course discussion team monitor discussions and keep them productive. They can also collect information, such as areas of particular confusion or interest, and relay it back to the course team.

Note

The course team members that you set up in Studio or in the LMS are not automatically granted discussion moderation roles. For information about discussion roles, see About Discussion Moderation Roles.

Note

Not all options for moderating discussions are available when discussions are accessed using the Open edX mobile app. For information about the differences between discussions on the desktop site and in the mobile apps, see Discussions in the Open edX Mobile App.

If you are using divided discussions, see Guide to Managing Divided Discussions.

Discussion Moderators #

Moderators are the key to effectively managing these online communities. Moderators keep the discussions productive and relay important information (errors, learner confusion with or interest in particular topics, and so on) to the rest of the course team. Discussions can be moderated by any of a number of members of the course team, but dedicating enough time to moderation is the best way to cultivate a successful discussion culture.

Responsibilities for Discussion Moderators #

Answer basic questions posed by learners, and direct learners with questions to the right resources: syllabi, course documents, course updates, useful lecture segments, example problems, etc.
Relay reports of errata, common misconceptions and questions, highly disruptive participants, bugs, and amusing or interesting posts to the most appropriate course team members.
Enforce the Honor Code by editing or deleting problem answers, or requests for answers, promptly.
Edit out offensive content from the discussion, and remind the originators of discussion etiquette and expectations.
Communicate problems and successes to your fellow moderators.
Identify learners whose presence in the discussions has a strongly positive impact. These learners can be promoted to community TA role and publicly acknowledged.
Add helpful items to the FAQ or to a welcome message or course handout.

Qualities of Good Discussion Moderators #

Good or great content knowledge: stellar learners from previous years often make good moderators.
Solid communication skills: the ability to organize positive, consistent, and effective communication with learners, other moderators, and members of the course team.
Time: keeping up-to-date with the discussions for a large MOOC requires at least 5 hours per week for reading posts, replying to or editing posts, and communicating with the other moderators and the course team.
Enthusiasm: this is the best predictor of moderator excellence!

About Discussion Moderation Roles #

You can designate a team of people to help you run course discussions. All course team members can view discussion topics and posts, but only team members who have one of the discussion moderation roles have additional abilities to moderate discussions and work with posts, responses, and comments.

Important

The course team members that you set up in Studio or in the LMS are not automatically granted discussion administration roles.

Discussion moderation and administration roles must be explicitly granted to members of the course team for them to be able to moderate or administer course discussions. The course author and any team members who have the Admin role can grant discussion roles.

The Discussion Roles #

Different options for working with discussions are available through the following roles.

Note

The options for moderating discussions described below are only available when members of the discussion administration team work in a web browser. The Open edX mobile apps do not currently offer moderation options.

For more information about differences between discussions on the desktop site and on the mobile apps, see Discussions in the Open edX Mobile App.

Course team members with the Discussion Moderator role can edit and delete messages at any level, review messages flagged for misuse, close and reopen posts, pin posts, and mark responses as correct answers.

Posts, responses, and comments made by Discussion Moderators are marked with a Staff identifier. The Discussion Moderator role is usually given to course team members who already have the Staff role.
Course team members with the Discussion Admin role have the same options for working with discussions as Discussion Moderators, and their posts, responses, and comments have the same Staff identifiers.

The Discussion Admin role is typically reserved for course team members who have the Admin role within the course: Discussion Admins can both moderate discussions and give other users discussion moderation roles.
Some learners who are enrolled in the course can be asked to help with moderating course discussions. These learners are assigned the Community Teaching Assistant (TA) role, and have the same options for working with discussions as Discussion Moderators do.

Posts, responses, and comments made by Community TAs are marked with a Community TA identifier.
In courses with divided discussions, enrolled learners can be assigned the Group Community TA role. Group Community TAs have the same abilities as Community TAs. However, the moderation and posting abilities of Group Community TAs are limited to discussion topics that are visible to members of the group that they themselves belong to.

Posts, responses, and comments made by Group Community TAs are also marked with a Community TA identifier.

Best Practices for Discussion Moderation #

Always maintain a positive attitude. Keeping a positive attitude is crucial to encouraging participation in the discussion community.
Encourage discussion between learners. Actively thank learners who answer the questions of others.
Use the course’s FAQ and updates or handouts on Course pages as resources. Provide links to these pages in your responses when appropriate. Suggest that information be added to these resources when necessary to respond to a common question or fix confusion.
Always make it obvious that you have read the learner’s question. When you post a response, make sure that you are on topic. Respond in the context of the thread.
Develop a discussion persona. Try to answer your questions in your own slightly unique way.

Provide Guidelines for Learners #

You can develop a set of best practices for discussion participation and make them available to learners as a course handout file or on a defined page in your course. These guidelines can define your expectations and optionally introduce features of Open edX discussions.

You can also refer learners to the Participating in Course Discussions section in the Open EdX Learner’s Guide. Consider referring learners in your courses to that section, which describes the structure and features of Open edX course discussions, and provides useful information to help learners make the most of their participation in course discussions.

Develop a Positive Discussion Culture #

Team members who are moderating discussions can cultivate qualities in their own discussion interactions to make their influence positive and their time productive.

Encourage quality contributions: thank learners whose posts have a positive impact and who answer questions.
Check links, images, and videos in addition to the text of each message. Edit offensive or inappropriate posts quickly, and explain why.
Review posts with a large number of votes and recognize “star posters” publicly and regularly.
Stay on topic yourself: before responding to a post, be sure to read it completely.
Maintain a positive attitude. Acknowledge problems and errors without assigning blame.
Provide timely responses. More time needs to be scheduled for answering discussion questions when deadlines for homework, quizzes, and other milestones approach.
Discourage redundancy: before responding to a post, search for similar posts. Make your response to the most pertinent or active post and then copy its URL and use it to respond to the redundant threads.
Publicize issues raised in the discussions: add questions and their answers to an FAQ topic, or announce them in a course update.

For a template that you can use to develop guidelines for your course moderators, see Best Practices for Moderating Course Discussions.

Find Questions and Discussions #

When learners create posts, they specify the type of post to indicate whether they are asking for concrete information (a question) or starting an open-ended conversation (a discussion).

On the Discussion page, a question mark image identifies posts that ask questions, and a conversation bubble image identifies posts that start discussions. When an answer is provided and marked as correct for a question, a check or tick mark image replaces the question mark image.

The titles and icons of posts that you have not yet read appear in blue, with a blue vertical bar on the post’s left side. Posts that you have read have dark gray titles and icons. When new responses and comments are made on posts that you have read, a “new” indicator displays with the number of new responses or comments that you have not yet read.

The discussion navigation pane, showing some unread and some read posts, including a post that has been read but now has additional new responses or comments.

In addition to these visual cues, filters can help you find questions and discussions that need review. In the discussion navigation pane on the Discussion page, you can also select the following options from the Show all drop-down menu.

Unread, to list only the discussions that you have not yet viewed.
Unanswered, to list only questions that do not yet have any responses marked as answers.
Flagged, to list only posts that learners have reported as inappropriate.

Guidelines for Specific Types of Posts #

Certain types of posts require more attention from the moderators than others, or might need to be handled in a particular way.

Time Sensitive Problems #

Try to be present on discussion threads when assignment due dates are approaching or new content is being released. The discussions tend to be extra busy at these times.
Alert the course team about problems that need to be dealt with quickly, such as problems with graded assignments. Setting up a course email address that is checked frequently is a good way to manage such alerts.

Content Questions #

Assist with content questions sensitively, but be careful not to post spoilers. Do not ask learners to post their solutions!
A good guiding question can be better than an answer.

Redundant Posts #

When possible, help discourage redundancy by responding to such posts with links to an earlier or higher quality thread that asks the same question.
When responding to a post, search for similar posts and respond to the most pertinent thread. Redirect the other posts to the thread with your response and then close the redundant threads.

Off Topic, Inappropriate, or Offensive Posts #

Do not simply delete inappropriate or offensive posts. Instead, edit and explain why the posts were edited. Inappropriate posts include spoilers, solutions, and information on how to pirate educational materials.
Check links that learners post. If you find links to offensive sites and materials, they need to be edited quickly.

Bugs or Errors #

Check to confirm that there is in fact an error.
- If not, suggest to the learners that they check their work.
- If so, contact members of the course team, and notify the thread that the error has been reported.
Use language that does not assign blame or discourage users from the platform.

You might say: “Thanks for letting us know about that issue. We are working to get it fixed as quickly as possible.”

Feature Requests #

Consider keeping an organized collection of feature requests cultivated by the course team, to share with the Open edX community for potential future feature development.
Reply to the post to let the person know that their request was heard, without promising that the feature will be implemented.

You might say: “Thanks for your suggestion. I’ve logged it for review by the Open edX Community, who will prioritize feature requests on the development roadmap.”
Search the discussions for other similar requests, and respond to and close those as well.

Review Date	Working Group Reviewer	Release	Test situation

Best Practices for Moderating Course Discussions

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Best Practices for Moderating Course Discussions#