According to the article,“The role you play in Online Discussions” ,by David Brown, the online instructor must be willing to take on multiple roles. These roles include community leader, discussion leader, manager , technical consultant and information resource person. Each role played adds value in multiple ways.  I do not think we , as online teachers ,need to be masters at every role. ( Although, it would be very nice) Significant strengths in any one or more areas, such as Manager , information specialist or tech guru can in fact compensate for lesser expertise in another area, such as discussion leader.  Do I think my master teacher could improve the student-student interactivity in the course? Absolutely. However, the course is strong in other areas and , as we are all discovering, there is only so much time in the day. It’s a process, one that evolves, grows and improves as we perfect our skills as teachers. We and the courses we teach are all works-in-process.

-KLC