The 5 stage model
This model, how it was researched and developed,is explained in much more detail in chapter 2 of the book.Here’s a summary: Individual access and the abilityof participants to use CMC are essential prerequisites forconference participation (stage one, at the base of the flightsof steps). Stage two involves individual participants establishingtheir online identities and then finding others with whomto interact. At stage three, participants give informationrelevant to the course to each other. Up to and includingstage three, a form of co-operation occurs, i.e. support foreach person’s goals. At stage four, course-related groupdiscussions occur and the interaction becomes more collaborative.The communication depends on the establishment of common understandings.At stage five, participants look for more benefits from thesystem to help them achieve personal goals, explore how tointegrate CMC into other forms of learning and reflect onthe learning processes.
Each stage requires participants to master certain technicalskills (shown in the bottom left of each step). Each stagecalls for different e-moderating skills (shown on the righttop of each step). The “interactivity bar” runningalong the right of the flight of steps suggests the intensityof interactivity that you can expect between the participantsat each stage. At first, at stage one, they interact onlywith one or two others. After stage two, the numbers of otherswith whom they interact, and the frequency, gradually increases,although stage five often results in a return to more individualpursuits.
Stage
Participant Needs
Instructor Response
5. Development
(reflecting on learning and achieving personal goals)
Have and accept responsibility for self-learning
Challenge assumptions regarding process and content
Openness to challenges
Support for self-directed learning
Trouble-shooting technical or process issues
4. Knowledge Construction
(establishing common understandings and collaboration)
Assert individual views
Make meaning and share new learning
Develop collaborative efforts at knowledge building
Group building
Facilitating discussion and connecting conversation and content
3. Information Exchange
(sharing course content and process information)
Select and use information
Exchange ideas with others
Appropriately constrain efforts at interaction and information retrieval
Directing effort
Presenting guidelines for interaction, research, and other course-related activity
Personalizing course activities
2. Online Socialization
(establishing online identities and interactivity)
Develop a sense of belonging and identity
Learn to use the system for communicating
Understand guidelines for behavior
Modeling appropriate interactivity
Making connections between individuals, each other, and the learning environment
Promoting mutual respect
1. Access and Motivation
(gaining access to and successful use of the system)
Get connected to the course
Access support materials
Understand purpose and become motivated to participate
Directing clearly regarding access and support
Inviting and welcoming
Figure 1. Needs and responses implied by Salmon‘s five stage model of computer-mediated conferencing
