The best e-moderators also summarize from time to time, span wide-rangingviews and provide new topics when discussions go off track.'They stimulate freshstrands of thought, introduce new themes and suggest alternative approaches.Thevalue of an online discussion can be very high so long as interest and focus last.But there is no need artificially to extend discussions and plenaries. E-moderatorsneed e-tivity closing as well as opening skills! Chapter 3 explores these skills inmore detail.Participants respond differently to knowledge construction processes, andsensitive e-moderator support is important. Adding value to the online network-ing comes in various ways.First, the contribution needs to be acknowledged and the contributor ‘heard’.Second, the contributions are available for others to read and they thusbecome a form of inventory. The e-moderator’s role is to enable contributionsto be surfaced and used by others. One person may need more time to exploreissues, and another may reach conclusions quickly and may become impatientwith those who are still thinking. It is important that the e-moderator avoids thetemptation to discount experience expressed (or allow other participants to doso) in any way or to counter it and enter into argument. At the point of theending plenary, the e-moderator can draw on the evidence that is presented totry to explore overall conclusions in the summary.