Student and tutor perspectives of on-line moderation

Purpose - The on-line tutor or e-moderator faces a diversity of new challenges, including instructional design, organisation, direct instruction and facilitating discourse. This study aims to contrast the views of students and tutors regarding what factors constitute effective e-moderation in order to identify key attributes of an on-line tutor. Design/methodology/approach - A qualitative methodology was adopted. The research utilised a semi-structured interview technique to collect data contrasting and comparing the views of 35 students and 35 tutors on the constituents of effective e-moderation. Findings - The paper finds that from a student perspective the quality of feedback, student support and module management were key attributes of an effective e-moderator. In contrast tutors argued that motivating students, including the provision of constructive feedback and developing an engaging on-line persona were critical to successful e-moderation. Comparison revealed that students and tutors have a broadly similar view to what constitutes effective on-line moderation and any disparities related to how these groups tended to interact with the learning environment. Students were concerned primarily with how moderation enabled them to engage with the learning environment whereas tutors tended to discuss effective moderation in terms of factors that facilitated the learning process. Originality/value - The study recognises the key attributes of an effective e-moderator that should inform course design and tutor training.