Page developed by Susan Burwash

Introduction

Since the advent of the internet, there have always been discussion forums. These discussion groups provide the opportunity for those who share a specific occupation, interest or concern to interact with like-minded others. Unlike online chats in which participants communicate synchronously (at the same time), most discussion forums are asynchronous.  These online groups have taken a variety of forms. Early discussion groups were most often either e-mail based listservs or newsgroups hosted on the widely distributed network of computer servers that comprise Usenet. Newsgroup members typically used newsreader software to access these newsgroups. Listservs still exist, as do newsgroups, but they have been increasingly supplanted by web-based discussion forums. In this page, we'll describe these three forms of discussion groups, relevant examples of each, and the pros/cons of using these tools. Finally, we'll demonstrate how to set up a discussion group using Google Groups.

Listservs/E-mail based mailing lists

Listservs are e-mail-based discussion groups. Participants sign-up for the listserv by sending an e-mail requesting that they be "subscribed" to the group. This message goes to the administrative e-mail address for that particular listserv. Once an individual is subscribed to that listserv, they can send messages to the rest of the members by sending an e-mail to the server running the listserv software. This message is then sent to all other members of the listserv. The individual will also receive all posts made by other listserv members, either as individual e-mail messages or as a "digest" in which all the messages for the past day/week arrive in one e-mail. Listservs are typically used by individuals who wish to share information about a specific topic/area with others. There is an understanding amongst members that messages should be on-topic. Listservs may or may not be regularly monitored by a moderator, so there is the possibility of spam.  The advantage of a listserv is that the messages come to you, in your e-mail inbox, rather than you having to remember to go check for new messages on a web-site. The disadvantage is that all messages come to you in your inbox. If the group is large and the members very active, the number of e-mails can become overwhelming.

Some OT listservs:

Model of Human Occupation listserv:

Members in many countries; a mix of clinicians/academics/students. Activity level varies. Sign up information at the MOHO Clearinghouse web-site

Occup-ther:

Started at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. Once very active with members from around the world, now very quiet

Occsci listserv:

Occupational Science listserv. Quite quiet. Most postings relate to conferences, publications, very little discussion.

AOTA listservs:

Includes listservs/forums for each of the Special Interest Sections, General Forums and Forums for Faculty and Fieldwork Coordinators. See this page for a list of current AOTA listservs

Newsgroups

Newsgroups are another tool that people with shared interests can use for discussion. Wikipedia has a reasonably thorough discussion of the history of newsgroups and how they work. The process of setting up a newsgroup is somewhat more challenging than setting up a listserv or web-based discussion forum. This is because there is a formal process - the submission of a Request for Discussion, followed by review by the Usenet Management Board of the name, description, charter for the group, etc. There are eight newsgroup hierarchies related to computers, Usenet itself, science, recreational activities, social issues, debate, and miscellaneous. Newsgroups can be accessed with a newsreader application, or with a browser via Google groups. Google now archives most Usenet newsgroups content. There is an OT newsgroup (misc.health.therapy.occupational), however it is unmoderated, and has sadly become an overgrown weed patch with little or no OT content, and a lot of spam. The advantage of newsgroups is that they can be a great source of information about topics you are interested in. In general, long-term newsgroup participants self-police in terms of conduct, but this is not always successful, and many groups have experienced "flame wars", "troll attacks", etc. that can be damaging to the community and very distressing to members. Unlike listservs, you need to remember to go to the newsgroup so staying current may be difficult.

Some OT related newsgroups:

Here's a list of some health-related newsgroups that might be useful for Occupational Therapists.

Web-based discussion forums

While listservs and newsgroups still exist, and serve some people's needs very well, most new discussion forums are web-based. Individuals wishing to set up a forum will have different options depending on whether they have access to a computer that can act as a server, take advantage of something like Free Forums (freeforums.org) or use Google Groups or Yahoo Groups. Discussion forums are also a common component found in course management systems such as Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle, etc. used by universities and colleges. In general, web-based discussion groups provide more opportunities to share not only text messages, but often pictures and other types of files. The forum owner and moderators have more options too in terms of designing the forum to encourage interaction and to recognize the contributions of forum members. Occupational therapists and those using our services have started many discussion forums. For instance, a search on Yahoo Groups using "occupational therapy" provides a list of 480 groups which use occupational therapy as a key word. On Google Groups, there are 56 Google Groups with "occupational therapy" in the description. Many of these groups are small, local in focus and may not be very active. This likely relates to the issue of sociability. The most successful discussion groups plan for social interaction, use moderators both to ensure that community norms are followed, and to encourage member participation. A good discussion of the importance of thinking about the social environment of discussion forums can be found in various publications by Jenny Preece. Web-based online forums have many tools to support online communities of practice. They can be particularly important for therapists who are working as a sole practitioner. Discussion forums also let us gain insights into common concerns and hot topics related to specific conditions that we might encounter in our work. They provide a way to hear from the learned experience of clients and colleagues. Most web-based discussion forums let you arrange to be notified when a specific topic you are interested in has new postings. That way you can go to the forum only when you know there's something new that's directly relevant to what you're interested. One disadvantage of web-based discussion forums is that they are the richest form of the three discussion tools discussed here, and therefore, perhaps, the most likely to be so interesting that you might spend more time reading and posting than you had planned to do.

Some OT web-based discussion forums:

Many national/state/provincial/regional OT organizations have online forums open to their members. Check the associations to which you belong for further information.

Occupational Therapy Forum: A new forum with over 700 members. Designed for OTs working in a variety of settings.

KAWA Model Discussion Forum: Hosted by Michael Iwama. A rich source of discussion about the Kawa Model.

Advance for OT: OT Forums.

OT India: 600 + members.

Health-related support groups

Here's a directory of health-related support groups

Thinking of starting a forum?   

There are lots of options, but one that is free, quite easy to set up and links well with other resources is Google Groups. Google Groups hosts many of the existing Usenet groups, but also gives you the opportunity to create groups. I set up a Google Group called "Occupational Therapy and Art" and captured the process on this movie. As you can see, the hardest part of this is deciding what to say and typing accurately :-)

Setting Up a Google Group from Susan Burwash on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/11007851

Want some additional tips on moderating an online discussion group? Here's a few to start with, from a group of consultants who specialize in helping people learn to be better online moderators.

Discussion Forums Page of OT4OT by OT4OT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License Please attribute (or reference) any use of this site to OT4OT (2010).