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Social role in facilitating online
discussion
In traditional classroom teachers use their physical presence to facilitate communication using the so called “classroom cues”. In the online classroom students and teachers communicate via written text. In order to create a warm environment, the first suggestion for teachers is to welcome students to the course. The next suggestion is that both teacher and students post photos and biographies in an attempt to establish the necessary familiarity in the group. Grabe (2004) recommends that teacher should put students in pairs and have them interview each other online. After establishing a warm environment, teachers may prepare their orientation program for the online course including an introduction to the course. For enhancing student interpersonal relationships teachers are suggested to use alternative means of communication such as telephone calls or scheduling meetings of small groups of students who live close to each other. Other aspects of effective online communication are the “netiquette” guidelines, which tend to minimize problems and show students that you, as their teacher, are knowledgeable and caring. Dealing with this issue, Fauske and Wade (2003) have given some suggestions for guiding the online discussion. Some of these suggestions include: *Be sure to make the expectations of the students’ replies clear. This can be done with the students’ input. *If the discussion is anonymous, this may result in a lack of responsibility on the writer’s part and allow a possibility of inappropriate responses. *Using the student’s names could reduce this. *Humor can easily become sarcasm and without the face-to-face cues provided in the regular classroom, could result in hurt feelings. *Ask the question, “Would I say this to the person face-to-face?” *Watch grammar and spelling which help clarity and communication. *Tie each reply to the previous question so that the reader is clear as to what the reference is. *E-mail is an important method of communication between the instructor and the students. Each should monitor them closely so that the channel of dialogue remains open *Discussion threads are permanent and they can be accessed at anytime. Online teachers must also facilitate frequent student interactions. This supports the social context for learning. Ko and Rossen (2001) offer seven tips for fostering asynchronous discussion: *Start the major toping threads yourself * Narrow down topics *Organize forums and threads to reflect the class chronology or sequence *Key the thread topics to appropriate activities *Establish a pattern of frequent response *Facilitate and build on participation *Be aware of cultural patterns as well as differences in personal styles of communication (p. 224-228) |