This paper is part of an ongoing European research project, called ARGUNAUT. The main aim of this project is to develop awareness tools for moderators used for the facilitation of online discussion. The ARGUNAUT system that is being developed during this project is based on synchronous learning and embeds an integrated suite of tools in order to set up and moderate synchronous discussions. The synchronous discussions are held by the students in either Digalo or Freestyler (developed at the University of Duisburg) which are tools that support online visual argumentation and dialogues. The central idea behind this project is to develop the awareness indicators, using data mining techniques and artificial intelligence trained on pedagogically annotated events of teaching and learning activities in online discussions. These awareness indicators will inform the moderator about teaching and learning activities that occur in online discussions. The challenge is to find ways in which pedagogical ideas of online argumentation, teaching and learning processes can be articulated into rules used by the awareness tools to find patterns or examples of particular networked learning behaviour that signify these rules.

Our focus in this paper is on the effectiveness of the moderation process provided by Argunaut to facilitate e-discussions. The main aim is to test and evaluate if the ARGUNAUT system allows moderators to facilitate discussions effectively. In order to prepare for this test, we decided to have a series of experiments of teacher-students workshops/experiments. The experiments will be carried out at School of Education and lifelong Learning, Exeter University. Research questions: - What are teachers’ perceptions of moderation and how this changes over time? - When moderating using the MI, what are the awareness indicators the teachers use to develop their moderation interventions? - When moderating more than 1 discussion, what are the awareness indicators the teachers use to develop moderation interventions? - How were the moderation interventions received by the students? Participants and research design: The study will be carried out with 3 teachers (Moderators) who will participate throughout the entire four experiments and 12 students of the PGCE programme (post compulsory and further education). The first two experiments will be carried out with the 4 teachers. The third and forth experiment will include both 3 teachers and 12 students; 4 students for each teacher. Data collection and data analysis: Pre- and post questionnaire on moderation, Digalo maps and MI, Focus group discussion, discourse analysis, critical event recall, screen recording and replay.

The results of these series of experiments will highlight how the moderators’ pedagogical skills and knowledge improve over time in becoming an online moderator using the ARGUNAUT system. Also, based on the data analysis of these experiments we will be able to flexibly adapt certain pedagogical strategies.