Posted by name on January 28, 2001, at 18:09:17
In reply to Bob, are you serious???, posted by Greg on January 28, 2001, at 16:40:57
Though the administrator conditionally suggested a person might be blocked, I have not found a post that says the person in question was blocked. Not to say that is not what is going on, but I don’t want to reinforce an idea that something happened if it didn’t happen.
That said, I was going to say when I read the administrator’s posts at msg/360 and msg/354, that the person in question had already posted a self-moderating message, at msg/350. I suppose that is just an inherent flaw of asynchronous communication, that a person who moderated their own stance will then be sanctioned about something for which they have already expressed apology. (I didn’t post to that effect when I noticed it, mostly to minimize whatever arousal or dissonance might follow a wordy but well-intended post. But since you asked…)
Intervening on-line, and publicly blocking people has both advantages and disadvantages, as cited in the Cyberpsych article. But when a person is posting under their real identity, and is discussing matters in the area of their professional expertise, the disadvantages can be exacerbated. Whether this discussion is research, practice, project or well-intended public service, public censures and the blocking of another professional approaches the measure of risk forewarned against in human research guidelines, in that it potentially can effect their professional status.
I advocate against the technique of publicly expelling group members. I believe the administrator’s admitted naivete is not limited to the technical difficulties of on-line expulsion. In one study, administrators who had no formal training in on-line education, and those who had taught fewer than five on-line courses, were more likely to prefer expulsion as a means of keeping discussion on topic.
In an study titled “Keeping Online Asynchronous Discussions on Topic” 135 online instructors surveyed rated expulsion of offenders as the least used and least recommended among 13 techniques suggested for that purpose.
The Beaudin study was specifically of asynchronous on-line forums in support of distance learning projects. However, the void of available information about administration of on-line self-help educational forums might encourage administrators to look at related genres in search of the best techniques for keeping things on track in their specific genre of on-line education.
In the Beaudin study, the most highly rated techniques were to carefully design questions that specifically elicit on-topic discussion and to provide guidelines to help online learners prepare on-topic responses. An adaptation of those techniques applied at a similar site has been cited elsewhere in this first PBA page.
If this is not altogether clear, I am sticking up for the person in question, and maintaining my plea for better guidelines to help participants here keep themselves and each other on topic. :-)
The Beadin study is posted at: http://www.aln.org/alnweb/journal/Vol3_issue2/beaudin.htm
poster:name
thread:377
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20001124/msgs/382.html