Effectively Moderating Electronic Discussions

Although instructors are increasingly using electronic discussions with both traditional and online classes, little has been written about how to best moderate these discussions. Moderating online discussions requires tremendous skill. As with in-class discussions, the primary goal of the moderator is to ensure that the discussion continually makes progress toward more advanced critical thinking. Because of this, moderator comments should be limited to helping students make the transitions associated with increasing cognitive complexity rather than leading them to predetermined answers. Building on the existing literature on both in-class and online discussions to teach critical thinking, the authors develop concrete strategies that can be used to make discussions more productive.