Distance Education in Transition - Master of Distance Education ...

Moderating a Virtual Seminar
We may consider it an achievement of the continued pedagogical metacognition during
the seminar when Randy finishes his intervention by saying: "Two months ago, the
questions (of the survey) would have been simply answered, now they require thought."
This is more than adequate feedback for the organizers of this seminar.
Structure of Discussions
One of the consequences of the a-synchronism of virtual seminars is that discussions
cannot be conducted in the same way as in real world learning settings. In fact, they
differ extremely. First of all, continued target-oriented debates are subdivided into many
short discussion phases. Spontaneous contributions are not possible. Because every
participant can express his or her views on the issue under consideration at different
times and in different sections of the seminar, too many contributions accumulate. The
format of the messages and the necessity to formulate and edit the contributions allow
for relatively brief statements only when the students are pressed for time. The students
cannot really expand on issues of personal interest or requests for further elaboration. If
the debate of a given issue is resumed after some days, it is difficult to position the
contribution, refer it to earlier statements and to re-establish the context. The systematic
investigation of a theme, the step-by-step dealing with sub-questions, the consideration
of several aspects brought forward by several participants, the justification and
evaluation of arguments and full summaries are difficult to achieve. One student
characterized the discussion in a virtual seminar by saying that it consists of a cosmos of
kaleidoscopic mini-dialogues. Because of the importance of the scholarly discourse for
the development of scientific understanding and communication, the dissolution of the
discussion, so typical of a real seminar, must be considered a grave loss and be
deplored.
Can this loss be compensated? Before answering this question, I should like to refer
again to the fact that virtual learning spaces differ radically from real learning spaces.
This means that we have to adapt to new pedagogical circumstances and possibilities.
We must be open to changes, even drastic ones. One of them is to become acquainted
with an entirely new structure for discussions and the appropriate new learning activities
– which are possible only in virtual seminars. Here students have to deal with and cope
with a growing volume of varied and multi-faceted messages. In order to be successful
they have to develop skills that differ decisively from listening to oral contributions and
to enter the discussion now and then. Their main task is now »reading« and »structuring«.
They have to relate new written information to previous written information of the same
kind, assemble clusters of information and become familiar with the threading of discussions.
This process can be an individual one according to interests, predilection, and
experiences. Thus, their participation in the discussion takes the form of working with,
working through and structuring growing accumulations of information. Linearity is
substituted by complexity.
Performing this task requires special intellectual flexibility and an overall view of the
processes going on in order not to lose track of the discussion in various threads. It
demands even some amount of creativity. The students are not only supposed to
distinguish themselves by writing relevant contributions, but much more so by
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