When a discussion thread or a conference has served its purpose
the instructor should be decisive in ending it.
How to deal with flaming:
Intervene at the critical point
Send private email
Remove flamer from conference
Students
can be given an opportunity to lead, moderate, or assist in
directing the discussion. The instructor may ask students to
take turns to experience administration responsibility.
In
any online conference there are two extreme cases: an active
participant who appears above the class level and an invisible
member who contributes little to the discussion. The instructor
needs to privately contact these members to ask the first to
wait a few responses before contributing (see example M1) and
to ask the second to participate more actively (see example
M2).
Conflict
may erupt in online discussion, especially when the topic of
the discussion is somewhat controversial. In many cases that
can lead to "flaming". These remarks are not productive
and may destroy the discussion. To guard against conflicts instructors
need to set up norms and rules for the online conference that
lay the foundation for a conflict management strategy. For example,
the instructor can set a rule at the beginning of the conference
to asking students to respect all opinions and not impose their
views on others.
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