Faculty: Nancy White & Special Guests

Date/Length: 3 weeks (with a week break after week 2)- This course is currently not offered. It can be customized and offered as a private offering for your group.

Daily Time Commitment: 2 hours a day, 5 days a week (weekends for "catch up")

Cost: $750.00 USD

Registration: TBA Upon next course announcement

Drawing from the rich writings of the cyber-mothers and fathers of online community, through the practical experiences of today's active community managers, "Hosting Online Communities" provides community hosts and moderators with a tool set and an experienced-based perspective on successful online community interactions.

The course combines didactic materials, "field trips" to some of the web's leading online communities, along with active, hands-on role-playing for hosting and moderating online communities. Although this course will not address tool set selection, we will experience a variety of applications (threaded and linear discussion spaces, chat, instant messengers) to explore how different tools require different facilitation and hosting styles.

• The Big Picture: What is your community all about?
• User agreements -- From written rules to community norms
• Howdy! Welcoming and getting to know new members
• Stimulating! Starting and nurturing engaging conversations
• Who me? Understanding member roles and groups
• Trouble! Dealing with difficult users and situations
• Using Volunteers? Think it through
• Housekeeping - Sweeping, tech support, archiving and all that jazz

• Online community hosts and moderators
• Online company staff who plan, supervise or manage online communities

Delivery Format

This is an online course presented in a web-conference asynchronous environment allowing participants to engage at their own convenience from home or office. Additionally, we will schedule one telephone conference call and several field trips to various online communities.

Participants are encouraged to maintain a personal online journal in the class space.

The class workspace will remain open for 30 days after the course for individuals to complete projects and review materials. Students will have a free sixty-day access pass to the Wise Circle Alumni Center where they can continue to learn, network and share in an informal community of practice.

A CD of the course is also made available for future reference.

Class Requirements

To get the most out of this intensive course, a minimum of 2 hours/day is required depending on your learning style. Some students, especially those unfamiliar with a range of online community tools, report that more time is needed. It is strongly recommended that this time be scheduled and set aside away from other daily activities, to ensure focused and uninterrupted attention. The class space will be open a few days prior to start of course with reading material and space for experimentation with the tools. Participants are encouraged to visit the site during this time to familiarize themselves with the environment.

The latest browser versions are recommended for this course (Netscape Navigator 4.7 / Internet Explorer 4.0, or higher versions)