Foundation for Buddhist Thought

You will be part of a tutor group of about 10 to 15 people. Your moderator will be a course graduate. This is where the course really takes off. Receiving discussion questions every two weeks linked to what the timetable says you should be studying,  you are invited to respond via the forum. You receive all the responses from the other students in your group and so it becomes an online forum discussion.
There is a real sense of "virtual sangha" about the groups. No matter where you live you are all studying the same topic at the same time. No one person has more to offer than another, and experiential anecdotes are as important as book knowledge.
You can also join the "Tea Room", a forum for general Dharma chat, open to all students starting at the same time as you. Here the conversations range beyond the topics of the course to setting up altars, dealing with the death of a pet, where the Dalai Lama is currently teaching, etc.

Example of an Email Discussion Group

This is an illustration of what the email discussion groups look like. A moderator posts a question in one email, e.g. 'Discussion thread C,' which is received by all students in the group (names have been obscured). They then reply to the initial question and to each others' responses.
In this way a discussion unfolds. The illustration above merely shows the list of replies on one of the threads in the forum. This is what your email inbox may look like in Module 1. Over time students and moderators can get to know each other quite well this way.

Moderators are experienced course graduates who volunteer to help new groups because they benefited by doing the course and want to help others deepen their understanding of Dharma. 
They have been chosen by Geshe Tashi not only because they have a good knowledge of the topics the course covers, but because they have the ability to keep the moderator groups engaged and stimulated.
Whilst FBT moderators act as guides for you, it is important not to expect them to be like academic tutors at a university. They won’t always offer a conclusion or a “right answer” to the discussion questions, but will encourage students to answer for themselves, using the material provided. This is an exploration of the philosophies of Buddhism and, as such, the emphasis is not merely on acquiring knowledge but on actively investigating the truths that lie within Buddhism.
One of the roles of the moderator is to be a group facilitator, rather than a teacher. They will be there to support students through the study of the material, to encourage participation, to feedback on essays and to make sure the discussions and various activities are delivered on time.