Burnett says: ‘ part of the “different flavour” of a given community can be seen in the particular norms and pattern of acceptable behaviours within the community. That is, each community emphasises its own particular patterns of interaction, and sets its own norms and expectations.’

That’s fairly obvious, I guess, but it fits in with the idea of tutors and experienced students modelling behaviour at the start so that the community gets off to a good start.

Of course, that assumes that the tutor and the experienced students have had good experiences before. Are there any models of successful virtual communities that are archived for people to look at?

What sort of training do you have to go on to become a moderator for a course?

Gill commented:
I’d recommend Gilly Salmon’s book entitled E-moderating. There’s a copy on my bookshelf if you fancy borring it 🙂

Gill
Comment from euphloozie – 18/11/05 09:29