A tale of two Salmons

Now that you’ve survived the transition to online or new modes of blended delivery, you and your team are no doubt looking to adapt your teaching and learning activities to these new modes of delivery. Two names you should definitely get to know are Gilly Salmon and Janet Salmons.

Gilly Salmons is the author of E-moderating: The key to teaching and learning online (2011) and E-tivities: The key to active online learning (2013).

In E-Moderating, Salmon presents a ‘Five-Stage Model’ for online learning that most learners go through at varying rates, and suggests effective strategies for moderating learners as they progress through those stages, from getting online and learning the technical and social conventions, to interacting online and ultimately becoming a confident, independent online learner.

In E-Tivities, Salmon presents a framework for designing online and blended learning activities to ensure that students have a clear understanding of the task and the opportunity to participate and interact with each other online. The framework ensures that activities clearly connect with each other and include specific plans for moderating the activity—that is, supporting and facilitating your learners to ensure successful completion of the task.

Janet Salmons is the author of Learning to Collaborate, Collaborating to Learn (2019). In this book, Salmons identifies different levels of online collaboration and clarifies key elements of effective collaboration such as clarifying roles and establishing trust. She offers guidance in the design and assessment of collaborative learning activities and projects.

These three books complement each other very well, sharing a common understanding that online and blended learning, just like classroom-based learning, is most effective when learners are comfortably communicating, engaged, and collaborating.

All three texts are available online through the HCT Library.

Salmon, G. (2011). E-moderating: The key to teaching and learning online (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge. HCT Library Link

Salmon, G. (2013). E-tivities: The key to active online learning (2nd ed.). London and New York: Routledge. HCT Library link

Salmons, J., & Wilson, L. A. (2019). Learning to collaborate, collaborating to learn: Engaging students in the classroom and online. Bloomfield: Stylus Publishing, LLC. HCT Library link