The list of references is to be submitted by each group after the debate. Next, the debate schedule, debate guidelines, team assignments, and room number are posted. Detailed procedures and guidelines for conducting the debate session are distributed to students two weeks before the actual debate session. A sample debate session can be conducted by the professor with the class to help the students get used to the activity. The students have 5-10 minutes to meet with their group in a separate chat room.
All students reconvene as a large group in a general chat room.
Controlled debate means that one person on the affirmative side will make an opening point. Then one person on the negative side will rebut that point and make a new point for the negative side. A person on the affirmative side will rebut the point raised by the negative side and will make a new point for the affirmative. The length of interchanges is limited, each post being limited to no more than 3-5 sentences that can be entered in the blank entry box found in any of the chat rooms made available by the Web development tools. Each team decides on how to organize the communication flow so only one person is speaking at a time.