The online forum service and the role of Moderators
The online forum service is part of the academic provision of The Open University and is intended to aid study. As such, there are strict rules as to how it can be used, and as a moderator you are the trusted gatekeeper, looking after this precious space!
The OU Students Association has an agreement with the University to allow us to use their facilities to co-ordinate social and welfare activities for our thousands of members. Over the years, that provision has grown to include a huge range of forums spanning the spectrum from the serious and closely related to study, to the social and purely for fun. None of the OU Students Association forums is part of the academic provision of the University although the students who use them feel that they add enormous value to the experience of being part of the OU Community.
OU student online forums are open to all those with access to the University’s online teaching services, however, some require specific permissions to access. The Association prides itself on the fact that all forums are moderated by students volunteers like you and ultimately managed by the Association’s elected student representatives..
As a Moderator it is important that you complete this online training. To begin, it is worth making sure you have read and are familiar with the following documents (it could be helpful to save or print these out for ease of reading, let us know if you need anything printed and sent to you to support you in your role).
University’s Computing Code of Conduct
Online Systems Guidelines
OU Students Associations Comprehensive Forum Guide
OU Students Association Volunteer Policy
At the end of this training, you will also be asked to complete two scenario exercises to demonstrate what you've learnt. This is important to ensure you have the information you need to support the online forums.
OU Students Association forum administration
In your capacity as a Moderator (mod), you would have also read through and understood the principles of the OU Students Associations Comprehensive Guide to the service. In general, as a Moderator, you should strive to be impartial and treat all users of the online forums fairly. However, you will be expected to moderate users of online forums who do not operate within the University’s requirements and the Comprehensive Forum Guide, or who you believe is deliberately trying to disrupt the service.
The Spirit of Forum is created when a new forum is set up and usually written by the mods. This ‘spirit’ enables Moderators to properly look after the individual forums. The Spirit of Forum gives guidelines to users as to how an individual forum works, which will help mods in their tasks. The Spirit of Forum must comply with the OU Students Association’s rules and must be approved by CAP.
Support for the Moderators and administration of the OU Students Association forums is delegated by the OU Students Association staff team in the form of the online role of the Forum Controller. The Forum Controller may appear, on the face of it, to be an administrative role, but we would like everyone to appreciate that there are people behind the Forum Controller identity, working hard for the benefit of both forum users and Moderators.