Forum moderation
It may be important that your group forums are moderated. In a Mahara group a forum can be edited by Group Administrators and Forum Moderators.
By forum moderation, we mean the allocation a few special people to actively "make the discussions happen". A moderator will generally "conduct" the following phases of a forum:
1. Clearly present the topic up for discussion.
2. Engage participants.
3. Manage the discussion process: linking the thought threads, widening out the topic, engaging responses from the more passive, and so on.
4. "Ending" the discussion when appropriate: perhaps with personalized feedback to some of the participants and a generic discussion "summary" or "conclusion" for the benefit of all.
Not all forums have to follow the framework suggested above, of course. Many forums are more open-ended in nature and many can be much more "passively" moderated.
Another responsibility of a forum moderator is to ensure that people are 'behaving themselves'. What exactly we...
