Effective Online Facilitation - Recently Updated Pages

Tid-Bits

emaney — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:16:02 CDT

Course Management Tips:
1. Log in to course on a scheduled basis (more frequently at the beginning of a semester).
2. Respond to all student emails within 24 hours.
3. Check for and respond to any student queries in the course itself.
4. Grade and return evaluated assignments as quickly as possible, or as stated in your syllabus.
5. Check to see that students are responding in the appropriate locations within the course.
TIDBIT: When preparing to type content into your course, type the information in Word first. This will save time and energy with revisions and you can save the material from year to year.

Two Cardinal Rules of Discussions: (advice to students)
1. Your comment must introduce relevant, new information.
- Is your comment accurate?
- Is it relevant to the issue under discussion?
- Is it substantive enough to elicit responses?
- Have you added any value or insight to the discussion or course?
TIDBIT: Often, it will be necessary to reply with a "thank you" or general agreement. While these comments can add to the social presence of the course, only comments that add knowledge will be graded.

2. You must create a subject field that conveys the essence of your main point. This requires the author to think about and clearly state the main point of his or her comment. It also provides the reader with advance information, which can be helpful in organizing and learning the content of the comment.

The Water Cooler (a.k.a. Break Room):
The Water Cooler is a forum designed for social dialogue. If you do not already have a water cooler set up within your course, you will quickly find how critical it is to have such a venue for discussion about personal endeavors, fun trivia, interesting articles and happenings, etc. Conversations that begin with a purely social frame can often naturally ease discussions that have significant impact on the exploration of course content. Community building is also enhanced. As the facilitator, you can also choose to participate in the water cooler discussions. You may find it useful to collect quotations from other responses as participants seek to build their own online voices. As the guide, you will aid in the transition from participants contributing messages that have a social context to actively engaging with the course content.
TIDBIT: The Water Cooler is a great place to post optional extension activities and/or reference material pertaining to modules.

Activities to Enhance Student Learning
(addressing multiple learning styles)

Within Blackboard . . .
1. Forums
2. Learning contracts
3. Lecture notes
4. PowerPoint presentations
5. Self-directed learning assignments
6. Group collaboration projects
7. Conferencing
8. Rubrics
9. Pair interviews (ice breaker activity where participants introduce partners on discussion board)
10. Student surveys ("Intrapersonal Moments" - i.e. Define being successful in an online course. What was your most interesting moment/challenge or experience?)

Sources to link in from outside Blackboard . . .
1. Video clips (interviews, etc.)
2. Historical audio clips (famous speeches, etc.)
3. Screen animations ("Viewlets" - for instructional exercises illustrating use of a website or program)
4. Online journals
5. Review of web-based resources
6. WebQuest (online scavenger hunt, etc.)
7. Annotated bibliography
8. Guest speaker (to facilitate student discussion)
9. Flash simulations
10. Students contribute and discuss web resources found relevant to module

Web 2.0 Tools . . .
blog
wiki
podcast
webcast
webinar
RSS feed
del.icio.us
TeacherTube

Instructional Strategies

emaney — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:12:24 CDT

Before the Course Begins
- Review the Online Student Orientation. It is important that you are aware of what information your students will enter your course knowing.
- Review your syllabus. Is there anything from the student orientation you can omit? Reinforce? Extend? Clarify?
- Review your course. Work through your course as though you were a student. Is everything logically organized and easily accessible? Are the assignments clear?
- Check your announcements. Be sure there is a permanent announcement welcoming the students and detailing how and when to contact you for assistance.
- When your course rosters are provided, send each student an introductory email. Be sure to include information about how they will log in to your course and what initial items you want them to review. Encourage them to check their announcements, emails, and the discussion forums daily.

During the Course
- During the first week, invite students to introduce themselves. Be sure to acknowledge each student by name and send a personal email to reach out to any student who may not be participating.
- Post each week's assignments or topics of discussion in the online classroom on the day prior to the beginning of each class week.
- As the instructor, you should expect to log on and participate a minimum or four times per week.
- Provide substantive feedback for assignments and discussion topics, particularly on the first assignment.
- Respond to students via personal email to answer questions that might not be relevant to the rest of the class, but address issues that might benefit all in the open forum. You should encourage students to respond in the same way.

After the Course Ends
- Provide grades via private email to each student with appropriate feedback within one week of the course end date.
- Online students are accustomed to prompt feedback and many will be awaiting reimbursement or transcripts.

Discussion Board Management
Facilitators can exhibit a tendency to jump into a dialogue to add support or expertise to a post. This changes their role to more of a participant than a guide. By doing this, a facilitator can inadvertently interrupt and potentially stifle the flow of conversation.

Deciding When to Respond
Some posts will be more time-sensitive than others and will require a quick turn around. At other times, it may be best to remain quiet and let the participants take over the conversation. Carefully consider your rationale for intervening and whether it requires you to forfeit your position on the sidelines.

Summarizing
As the guide, you will often need to provide closure or refinement to dialogue. It may be simply to tie up the threads of a dialogue and move on to another topic, or perhaps to extend the conversation or move it in a new direction. When summarizing, post your comment to highlight the most salient contributions of the participants, putting them together to focus on a common theme or the potential for further dialogue (inquiry-based synthesis). When you draw upon participants' comments and observations, reinforce participation and encourage continued effort.

Landscaping
To avoid being the "sole summarizer" and having the final words of a dialogue, include multiple perspectives on the issue discussed and suspend judgment and personal observation. No conclusion is necessary.

Lagging Discussions
Give the group a gentle nudge to remind them of course expectations and a reminder that you are available to help. Reinforce that you will be monitoring participation, but acknowledge commitments and constraints of daily life that may interfere.

Assigning Value to Posts
While the number of entries per thread is important, carefully consider the interaction with other participants' postings.
Does the response build on ideas of others and dig deeper into questions or issues?
Does the response integrate (synthesize) multiple views and show the value of reflection?

Selecting Tone
Consider when each might best be employed . . .
Nurturing
Humorous
Imaginative
Neutral
Curious
Analytical
Informal
Whimsical

Moving Participants to a New Conceptual Level
To build community by contributing to the dialogue as a co-learner rather than an expert , carefully consider the following strategies:

Avoid publicly praising participants - When participants make excellent points or further support the dialogue, it is tempting to make approving statements. However, this has the potential to shut down further dialogue from other participants. Instead, highlight comments that are on track. Select two or three pertinent points from a variety of participants and weave them together. Then, pose a question to shift the focus, which challenges participants to dig deeper.

Draw upon elements that are already in the dialogue to help move it forward - Identify comments already posted in the dialogue that can serve as bridges to the next level of understanding for the group. This helps participants focus not on who "got it right," but on the comments that will assist them in sharpening their focus on the outcome of the discussion. This also encourages risk taking and creates a climate of respect for individual responses, even if they are "wrong."

Highlight tensions in the dialogue - Tensions in comments are opportunities for you to encourage participants to clarify their thought processes, explore underlying assumptions, and deepen the dialogue.

Instructor Dimensions

emaney — Thu, 28 May 2009 10:10:51 CDT

The framework of facilitator responsibilities includes:
- course planning and organization
- ability to create an atmosphere of collaboration and teamwork
- setting an agenda and providing leadership and direction
- developing methods for learner feedback and reinforcement
- pacing materials and chunking modules
- personalizing instruction to be relevant to the needs of individual participants

Creating an "Online Presence"
Sage on the Stage (content provider)
Guide on the Side (content facilitator)
Teacher in the Bleacher (success coach)

If a facilitator can successfully guide learning through meaningful interaction with content, community and collaboration, then learning is maximized as participants are pushed to learn by doing in an effort to assimilate knowledge into schema. The facilitator approach fosters an online culture in which participants take charge of their own learning. In this way, the facilitator can help to focus and deepen the discussion without getting in the way of the participants' development of their own expertise.

Summary of Roles of Online Instructors:
Pedagogical
Course Designer - Design interactive learning experiences, structure course materials, construct questions that have variety of instructional levels, sequence presentation of content and pace material, refine and update learning material, share teaching experiences with colleagues.
Inspire Professionalism - Promote professional dialogue among participants, relate personal experiences and cases to the discipline, reference professional publications and organizations.
Feedback Delivery- Provide timely and quality feedback, provide formative feedback for continued learning and interaction, develop consistent method for learner feedback.
Interaction Facilitator - Facilitate peer interaction in online discussions through a wide range of strategies, set agenda and provide direction without controlling the class.

Managerial
Conference Manager - Ensure equity in online discussion, provide rules and guidelines to augment online discussion, promote the construction of new knowledge, encourage active online learning.

Types of Interaction
1. Learner-Content Interaction
2. Learner-Instructor Interaction
3. Learner-Learner Interaction

Organizer and Planner - Provide clear instructions and organization of course structure, achieve and maintain balance between structure and flexibility with new ideas and insights as vehicles to new understandings.

Social
Social Rapport Builder - Build rapport and foster community, establish online teams or groups for collaborative efforts, respond to needs of individual participants and personalize instruction to be relevant to differences in learning styles.

Technical
Technical Coordinator - Refer students to support links, communicate technical issues.
Media Designer - Develop or provide access to multi-media learning tools to enhance course content.
Technology Integrator - Incorporate interactive tools to facilitate high quality online interaction, stay current on technology trends and maintain updated training on instructional technologies.

Advanced Moderating Skills:

VOICES
1. Generative Guide
2. Conceptual Facilitator
3. Reflective Guide
4. Personal Muse
5. Mediator
6. Role Play

TONES
1. Nurturing
2. Curious
3. Humorous
4. Analytical
5. Imaginative
6. Informal
7. Neutral
8. Whimsical

CRITICAL-THINKING STRATEGIES
Strategies that sharpen focus
Strategies that dig deeper

Effective Online Facilitation Home

emaney — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:56:31 CDT

Welcome! This site has been created as a collaborative space to share ideas and strategies related to effectively facilitating an online course. Please browse our pages to read valuable research, tips, strategies, pedagogy and more! Feel free to contribute to this ever-evolving knowledge space, or start a discussion on a topic of interest to you. We look forward to future collaboration and conversation!

"If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play." ~ John Cleese

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves." ~ Carl Jung

Videos

emaney — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:52:47 CDT

Links to videos about online learning and education in the 21st century:

20th Century and 21st Century Teacher s

Learning to Change, Changing to Learn

A Vision of Students Today

Pay Attention

Education in Second Life: Explore the Possibilities

Resources

emaney — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:28:08 CDT

The following resources have been compiled to help you as you evaluate and refine your course content and online instructional approaches.

Discussion Boards
A link to materials from Nancy Woodward's presentation at BTC on September 8, 2008

What makes a successful online facilitator?

Blackhawk Technical College Blackboard Resource Page

Creating an Effective Online Syllabus

Activities that Promote Online Discussion

Assessing Learning Objectives and Bloom's Taxonomy

Instructional Strategies for Online Courses

Learning Styles in the Online Environment

Designing Questions for Online Learning

Conferencing Strategies

Documents attached below:
Top Ten Instructor Benefits
Intervention Process for Facilitating Posts
Teacher Talk: Building Community - Power Point presentation
The Future of Online Learning - article
The Hybrid Model - article
Virtual Aggression -Power Point presentation

Books

emaney — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:26:01 CDT

Links take you to Amazon.com to preview each title listed.

Discussion-Based Online Teaching to Enhance Student Learning - by, Tisha Bender

Facilitating Online Learning: Effective Strategies for Moderators - by, George Collison, et al.

Essential Elements: Prepare, Design, and Teach Your Online Course - by, Bonnie Elbaum, et al.

How to be a Successful Online Student - by, Sara Dulaney Gilbert

147 Practical Tips for Synchronous and Blended Technology Teaching and Learning - by, Rosemary M. Lehman and Richard A. Berg

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms - by, Will Richardson

The Online Learning Idea Book: 95 Proven Ways to Enhance Technology-Based and Blended Learning - by, Patti Shank

Quality Standards

emaney — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:02:00 CDT

The following documents are in use throughout the WTCS. Each evaluation tool is a valuable resources as you continue to evolve your online courses.

Quality Standards for Online Courses (document attached - see bottom of page)
A quality review instrument designed by eTech to determine how well a course meets the learners' needs.

Rubric for Online Instruction
This rubric evaluates what a high quality online course looks like through six different dimensions.

Instructional Design Tips
This document provides a checklist for online instructional design and delivery.

ISTE Standards for Teachers
The International Society for Technology in Education 2008 National Education Technology Standards for Teachers.

Effective Practices
This document, from the Sloan-C Consortium, details effective practices in areas such as learning effectiveness and student satisfaction.

What is Online Learning?

emaney — Tue, 26 May 2009 12:19:38 CDT

"Education is a process, not a place." (Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat )

Applied Pedagogy
Students are charged with creating their own learning. The more "quality" time students spend actively engaged in content, the more content they learn and retain. Facilitators need to teach questioning as a learning tool to assist in creating new knowledge. As students become the discussion facilitators, the role of the instructor is limited to providing the necessary structure and directions, as well as supportive and corrective feedback when necessary.

Interactivity is a requirement. In the traditional classroom, interaction means listening and talking. In the online classroom, interaction means reading and writing. Interaction is not just discussion.

student with student
student with professor
student with text
student with Internet
student with class
student with small group/team

Interaction through assignments, readings, course content, problems to solve, case studies, lab activities, etc.

Virtual Presence
Social - Participants help to establish a community of learning and project personal characteristics into discussions.
Cognitive - Construction and confirmation of meaning is achieved through discussion. Student-led discussion is preferable and powerful.
Teaching - Involves the facilitation and direction of cognitive and social processes.

Discussion Facilitator:
- identify areas of agreement/disagreement
- seek to reach understanding, if not consensus
- acknowledge, encourage and reinforce student contributions
- set climate for learning
- prompt discussion/draw in participants

Direct Instruction:
- present content and questions
- focus the discussion
- summarize the discussion
- diagnose "misperceptions"
- inject knowledge drawn from diverse sources
- field technical concerns