In collaboration with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), the Centre for Learning & Teaching Enhancement (CLTE) organized a workshop on E-Moderation at FNU’s Derrick Campus in Suva on 30 & 31 October 2019. Targeted participants were teachers from the College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences (Public Health & Primary Care), and the College of Humanities & Education (Education and Communication, Language & Literature). The team at the Centre for Flexible & E-Learning (CFEL) joined in as part of their professional development. While the content was familiar, it also served as timely revision for the CFEL team, especially as they were in the thick of blended and online course development for 2020 and wrapping up blended course delivery for 2019.

Facilitated by seasoned E-Learning developer, teacher and advocate Michael Coghlan, the 2-day workshop focused on keys areas of E-Moderation related to facilitating Blended and Online courses, such as Models of E-Moderation, Building Online Communities, Communication Channels, Skills/Competencies of the Online Moderator and Getting the Mix Right in Blended Learning. The CFEL team were enlightened by the concepts presented in the workshop, especially as it was delivered in a blended format where participants took part in active group discussions in class then followed it up with online engagement and feedback. “The term ‘e-moderating’ is used to capture the wide variety of roles and skills that the online teacher, lecturer or trainer needs to acquire (Salmon, 2004). Online human supporters have a wider range of expertise compared to working with face-to-face learning groups. The role of the lecturer or teacher in all educational contexts needs to change to include e-moderating to realise the development and potential of new online environments…” The Pro Vice Chancellor for Learning & Teaching at FNU, Professor James Pounder opened the 2-day workshop, reinforcing the importance of creating positive online learning communities and experiences. CFEL hopes to roll out similar E-Moderation workshops to more FNU teachers in the new year.

Michael Coghlan (Front Centre) with participants from CFEL & CLTE.