DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF AN ELECTRONIC ASSISTANT TO SUPPORT ASYNCHRONOUS DISCUSSION FORUMS FOR ONLINE COURSES

This paper refers to a developing and testing experience of an electronic assistant designed for supporting teachers’ moderation of online forums discussions in an asynchronous mode. The work development and design of contents offer a support on effective techniques and strategies for moderators facilitating online courses based on the research made by Collison, Elbaum, Haavind, and Tinker, (2000). Four teachers participated at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC), México; two with experience and two without experience in online forums moderation. A general description is made of the electronic assistant design content and its visual distribution as well as a general analysis of the teachers’ experiences on testing the electronic assistant as a tool support while they were moderating their forums. One area of concern of this paper is how to promote the facilitation of an effective learning and how teachers can acquire techniques and strategies for online forums with a constructivist approach. According to the interviews, the results showed that the electronic assistant can be useful to teachers that face the transition from traditional teaching into virtual mode education; for those already teaching in virtual schemes the tool helped to consider a different point of view about moderation.

References:
Collison, G., Elbaum, B., Haavind, S., & Tinker, R. (2000). Facilitating online learning. Effective strategies for moderators. Madison, WI: Atwood publishing.