communication is critical

From the Benfield article: "It was most important to first define your own expectations about communication, lay it out for students from the outset and then stick to it. If your expectations are not being fulfilled you have to follow up with e-mails or phone calls. Communication is critical. The rule is, actively avoid isolation."

I am not sure if it is right to assume that bloggers are self-motivated and don't need someone to chase them up if they don't make regular posts. But for simplicity I'll relate the above Benfield quote to online discussions. Discussions require engagement and contributions and clearly if students are not responding to posts or initiating conversations then the learning value of the board is diminished. If students are not communicating (online) then it seems reasonable that a tutor does the same as they would if the class were silent face-to-face i.e. prompt them for interaction.