Moderators' Role in Fostering Health Practitioner Engagement Within an Online Active Learning Program (The Community...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Digital Health
• Online Learning Communities

Background:

• Virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) facilitate interprofessional education for primary care physicians (PCPs).
• The role of moderators in optimizing engagement within health-focused VCoPs requires further investigation.
• The Community Fracture Capture Learning Hub serves as a model for studying moderator impact on collaborative learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize moderator roles and strategies in health-focused VCoPs.
• To analyze engagement dynamics within the Community Fracture Capture Learning Hub.
• To identify best practices for moderator facilitation in online learning environments.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative relational content analysis of discussion board interactions.
• Thematic analysis of moderator-participant and moderator-moderator exchanges across four 6-week cycles.
• Involved 55 primary care physicians and 8 moderators over 18 months.

Main Results:

• Moderators encouraged participation through personalized prompts and affirming language.
• Moderator collaboration enhanced community cohesion and knowledge sharing.
• Strategic facilitation techniques deepened clinical reasoning and bridged theory-practice gaps.
• Engagement evolved from structured guidance to collaborative dialogue, increasing complexity.

Conclusions:

• Moderators are crucial for transforming VCoPs into dynamic, engaging learning environments.
• Effective moderation blends rational skills, clinical authenticity, and adaptive facilitation.
• Competency-based moderator training in communication and collaboration is recommended for effective VCoPs.