Salmon, Gilly. (2004). E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online (2nd Edition). New York: RoutledgeFalmer
xiv + 229 pages
$41 (Paper) ISBN 0-415-33544-2
Reviewed by Susan Crichton
University of Calgary
October 22, 2004
Many online educators will be familiar with Gilly Salmon’s earlier work, E-tivities: The Key to Active Online Learning, as well as the first edition of this text. However, for those engaging in online practices for the first time, E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online is an essential read. For those of us who work extensively in the field, this second edition is a great guide; a reminder of the details of working online that one tends to assume. Or forget, or overlook. E-moderating would also be a valuable resource for administrators and program planners as the text carefully describes the important issues of model design, roles and responsibilities, training, and issues for the future. Throughout, Salmon supports her comments with actual transcripts from online conferences and courses.
The text is broken into two parts: (1) Concepts and Cases and (2) Resources for Practitioners. Part One is a discussion of the issues arising for educators moderating online conferences. Part Two consists of fairly detailed lists of strategies and practices within the areas of moderating skills, management skills, exploration, and encouragement for participants.
In the preface, Salmon explains the developments that have prompted this second edition. She notes that three key themes have emerged since the first publication. First, there is less of a need to convince people that online teachers, trainers, and facilitators need support. She feels that people are now less worried about technology doing away with teachers and more concerned about how teachers need to be supported to use technology well. Second, Salmon hopes that researchers have “… stopped counting online messages, making spurious comparisons between online and face to face, and started instead to explore when and what we need to do to make online really worthwhile” (p. xi). Third, there is the need to consider how to “… scale up the e-moderating task force beyond the early adopters …” (p. xi). Scalability is a critical factor for many institutions, as the success of many online programs is tied closely to ensuring a quality experience for participants – teachers and students alike. These three themes support the view that online learning is becoming more a mainstream staple of educational programs and less a fad or innovation.
Part One of this text offers one of the best explanations of online teaching and learning. Salmon takes us back to the initial use of the term online – from its roots in the early days of the telegraph when people tapped not typed messages directly on line rather than off line via the use of perforated tape. She clearly presents the three dominant categories of online technologies for education and training: informatics, computer-assisted instruction, and computer mediated conferencing, explaining the differences and similarities.
While noting the importance of the technology that supports online learning, Salmon stresses the importance of the human interaction and communication required to make the learning experience successful. She also explains how online learning has the potential to support the kinds of learning experiences that allow for knowledge construction and constructivist forms of engaging with content. Salmon is clearly among the group of educators who sees that online learning has the potential to support the new learning environments called for in the literature (Jonassen, 2002; ISTE, 2003), but are not as pervasive in actual practice.
As stated earlier, Salmon offers examples of discussion postings and actual online interactions to support her points. These examples are clearly differentiated from the text through the use of shaded text boxes. This allows the reader to skip them and follow the text in sequential manner if needed and return to the examples at a later date. However, the examples are well selected and illustrate the points well without radically disrupting the flow of the arguments.
A good rationale is given for the use of the of an action research model to collect the data for this text. Quoting Nunes and McPherson (2002), Salmon states “Action research is highly appropriate to the development of e-learning, where experience suggests that significant modifications are required to the traditional paradigm … changes imply not only alterations to course models but also development of new attitudes” (p. 17). This explanation is consistent with the notion running through this text - online learning is not simply scanning traditional lectures and placing them into Web CT (or some other computer managed system), rather it is about thinking hard about teaching and learning and allowing our best practices and theories to support us in this rich and innovative learning environment. Using a computer function as a metaphor, online learning allows us to reset the teaching and learning experience, and consider what could be rather than transferring only what has been and currently is.
To assist with our conceptualization of the potential for online learning, Salmon offers her five-stage model of teaching and learning. The diagram (p. 29) illustrates the skills required for e-moderating and technical support. The stages are presented in a hierarchy from access and motivation through to development. Intermediate stages include online socialization, information exchange, and knowledge construction. The hierarchy is based on the amount / degree of interactivity required to accomplish learning. This model is well explained in Chapter 2, drawing on relevant literature for support and clarification. Examples from online conferences are given for each stage, and Salmon explains the link from one stage to the next.
The diagram of the five stages is an important design reference for those who are creating their own courses. It makes explicit the need to recognize and honor the steps for good teaching and learning by not creating tasks that assume the participants can function effectively online and intuitively move through the stages without intentional support and design considerations from the course developer and moderator.
Chapter Three discusses the roles and skills required to be a good online moderator. Salmon suggests that we consider them in terms of qualities and competencies. She offers a table (p. 54-55) of competences noting that one should try to recruit individuals with certain characteristics, recognizing that training and development of those skills would be required. This table of e-moderator competencies offers an excellent design or professional development activities for online educators, and program administrators wish to adopt it in their plans. It is important to note that many people do not hold the competencies and qualities suggested by Salmon. She states, “I tend to select applicants who show empathy and flexibility in working online, plus willingness to be trained as e-moderators. Before asking them to work online, I train them in the competencies described in columns 3-4 in [the table]. I would expect e-moderators to be developing the skills in columns 5-6 by the time they had been working online with their participants for about one year” (p. 53). Seeing online teaching as a learned, developed practice is critical as previous studies (Crichton & Childs, 2004) suggest that many online educators are simply thrown online and expected to sort out the new environment along with their students. Salmon calls for training and practice, noting that if we want online education to be different from what currently exists, we must recognize the need for thoughtfully training and development as well as an understanding of content / course development.
Chapter Four elaborates on the training required for e-moderators. Salmon states “Any significant initiative aimed at changing teaching methods or the introduction of technology into teaching and learning should include effective e-moderator support and training, otherwise its outcomes are likely to be meagre and unsuccessful” (p. 80). While we should know this from years of unsuccessful, or moderately successful, technology integration initiatives, this chapter is an excellent reminder that simply assuming that innovations will be infused meaningfully into existing practices is not usually the case in education. Further, Salmon notes “E-moderating is not a set of skills any of us is born with, nor one that we have learnt vicariously through observing teachers while we ourselves were learning” (p. 80-81). She ensures us to recognize that there is something very different about teaching and learning online; something that is not intuitive or obvious. It requires an understanding of the media and the medium, as well as the content and context. Throughout this chapter, and in the text itself, I believe that Salmon is supporting the need for sustained professional development for online educators as well as considering a preservice program (Crichton & Childs, 2004). Salmon states “At present many of the most enthusiastic and successful e-moderators are those ‘gypsy scholars’ working in a portfolio way, and those who have experienced and seen the benefits of leading and constructing knowledge with virtual learning groups” (p. 81). This observation is certainly consistent with my experience, and is certainly not the way to address the need for qualified online educators.
My only frustration with this text surfaces in Chapter Four. Salmon separates e-moderating from the other aspects of online teaching. She makes little or no mention of course development, separating the task of moderating from the academic / content skills required to develop and organize an online course. While this separation is to be expected, especially with the title of the text, I am not too certain how many online educators have their roles so neatly divided. It appears that many K-12 online educators have to assume all aspects of the work, and even if they “inherit” a course that has been designed, they are expected to modify it for their students. Also, universities, such as my own, expect faculty to propose, design, development, and deliver online courses. While they may be offered support in the development of media objects, all other aspects of the work are to be assumed by the instructor. I would have been interested to know how many online educators function solely as moderators as suggested in this text.
Chapter Five presents the experiences of the e-moderators and the participants. It focuses on the different perspectives that each brings to the online environment, noting how novice moderators and participants different in their views from more experienced individuals. Each has an expectation of what online teaching and learning might be. For some, the expectations may be based on prior experiences, for others simply the hype and/ or promotion of individual programs or public media. Citing Chisholm, Carey et al (2002), Salmon notes “The support and actions of e-moderators, more than the functions of the technology in use, can truly make the difference between disappointment and highly productive learning. In a situation of widening access and value in diversity in online learning, ensuring inclusiveness has never been more important” (p. 104). This chapter addresses issues of access and participation, learning styles and approaches, disabilities and online working, corporate training, gender and e-moderating, lurking, and induction. Again, Salmon offers rich examples from courses in the UK and Australia. She explains in detail the major points of each issue and offers tips as to how to address them. She also connects the points raised to the specific suggestions within Part Two of this text.
The final chapter, The Key to the Future, offers interesting scenarios that present futuristic situations. These scenarios encourage us to think beyond what currently exists. Salmon reminds us that “A scenario is a descriptive forecast of a landscape that an organization or institution might find itself in. Scenarios are not about forecasting the future but about looking at the possibilities – what we might think of as ‘strategic conversations’” (p. 137). Scenarios allow us see things differently and “… avoid a simple ‘solutions’ approach and the risks of trivializing potentially significant decisions” (p. 137). With this in mind, Chapter Six offers even the most experienced online educators an opportunity to think beyond their own online practices and consider the future. The fact that technology will continue to change is a given. The fact that online and learning will probably expand is given. The question that this book so strongly poses is will we change our practices and thinking enough to consider the possibilities? Will we organize intentional mentoring / training programs that will allow us to scale the online model effectively?
E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online is a valuable text. Educators and administrators currently planning programs within their organizations should read this book and incorporate its ideas into their professional development options. Those currently teaching online might appreciate a review of items in Part Two as a reminder of some of the steps or strategies to encourage online interaction. For those totally new to the field, Salmon offers a warm and honest introduction to online learning; a welcome that many of us early adopters would have welcomed!
References
Crichton, S. & Childs, E. (July / August 2004). Teachers as Online Educators: Requirements for Distributed Learning and Teacher Preparation. Educational Technology, 44(4), 25-30.
ISTE (2002). Standards for Technology-supported Learning
Environments
http://www.iste.org/news/2002/10/23-nasbe/nasbe-tech-supported-2002.pdf.
Jonassen, D.H. (2002). Engaging And Supporting Problem Solving In Online Learning. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 3 (1), 1-13.
About the Reviewer
Susan Crichton
Assistant Professor
Educational Technology
Faculty of Education
University of Calgary
602 Ed Tower
2500 University Dr. NW
Calgary, AB T2N 1N4 Canada
(403) 220-7522 FAX (403) 282-7489
www.ucalgary.ca/~crichtos
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