Facilitation team, Danielle Stokes, Dorothy Sidhu, and Beata Kozma, will provide opportunities for learners to consider and apply the role of questions in online facilitation during week six, September 29 – October 5. Understanding the importance, role, and various types of questions discovered through readings and activities will give participants the foundation to practice the art of creating questions.
Our facilitation plan for the week is outlined below. Please provide us with any constructive comments.
Topic: The Role of Questions in Online Facilitation
Tagline: Are questions really the new answers?
Learning objectives for the week
Throughout the week-long course, learners can expect to:
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- Understand the importance of different types of questions in facilitation for both facilitators and learners in an online learning environment.
- Practice writing effective questions to reach set learning goals and enrich learning within a Community of Inquiry.
Required resources to read and watch
Ertmer, P. A., Sadaf, A. & Ertmer, D. J., 2011. Student–content interactions in online courses: The role of question prompts in facilitating higher-level engagement with course content. Journal of Computing in Higher Education 23(2–3):157–186. doi:10.1007/s12528-011-9047-6
Berger, W. (2014. Aug 14.). Questions Are the New Answers, with Warren Berger.
Optional reading:
Sadaf, A., & Olesova, L. (2017). Enhancing cognitive presence in online case discussions with questions based on the practical inquiry model.American Journal of Distance Education, 31(1), 56–69. doi: 10.1080/08923647.2017.1267525
Technology
Slack collaboration and communication tool is the selected digital environment for the facilitation week for the class. Bates (2015) states that the use of technology in teaching is a means, not an end. Using Slack or Slack-like collaboration and communication tool and its features, learners both learn and practice a tool that they can use in their facilitation, as well as collaborate with peers and instructors efficiently. Bates (2015) also mentions that students should be studying within 20 minutes of logging into a technology. By choosing a technology used by all participants in this facilitation week, it is assumed that minimal effort will be required to orient learners to this tool. (social and teaching presence)
Channels (social and teaching presence)
#1-general channel – General announcements
#2-activity-one – Welcome Activity channel
#3-activity-two – Activity Two channel
#4-activity-three – Activity Three channel
#5-activity-four – Reflection activity channel
#resources – Resources channel for both facilitators and participants to share useful links, information and suggestions.
Communication and facilitator support actions
Send email to invite participants to the facilitation week Slack environment. (social presence)
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- Ask the participants to set up id/name + image/avatar. (social presence)
- Suggest installing the mobile app and configuring notifications. (teaching presence)
- Provide visual instructions. (teaching presence)
Post welcome message in the Slack environment #1-general channel. (social presence)
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- Title/tagline/topic of the week, the learning objectives, timeline, required readings, introduction video and transcript and a short description of the activities. (teaching presence)
- Participants to react with their preferred emoji to confirm they saw and read the welcome message. (social presence)
Provide activity descriptions, instructions, and prompts in their respective channels to guide and assist the participants. (teaching and cognitive presence)
Facilitators to respond to posts throughout the week, draw in participants, offer support and potentially summarise after the discussion, how to move forward. Send reminders if needed and suggest additional resources. (teaching, social and cognitive presence)
Learner Activities
Day 1 – Read course overview, learning objectives, short activity descriptions, schedule, watch the introduction video or read the video transcript, and read required reading. (social and teaching presence) (est. time: 45-55 mins)
Day 1 – Activity One in #2-activity-one channel (social presence) (est. time: 10-15 min)
The purpose of this activity is an icebreaker to create a fun, welcoming and friendly learning environment.
Step 1: Participants to post funny gif, meme, image or quote that relates to questions, questioning techniques, the use or role of questions, or a question that evokes emotion.
Step 2: Participants to react to the other participants’ post with an appropriate emoji to show what emotions that post caused. (social and teaching presence)
The facilitation team will participate in this activity by each having one pre-loaded image/quote/gif and reacting emojis on each others post to start the fun.
Day 2-3-4 – Activity Two in #3-activity-two channel (teaching, social and cognitive presence)(est. time: 35-45 min)
The purpose of the required reading and video for Activity Two is to help learners understand the role of the different types of questions in facilitation and how questions may impact learning goals. In addition, the participants will have an opportunity to use the newly acquired terminology and question classification.
Step 1: Participants are to pick a context/situation where they need to facilitate a discussion this week; can be a workplace or personal project.
Step 2: Using the Ertmer, P. A., Sadaf, A. & Ertmer, D. J., 2011 article’s Andrews’ typology and/or the Bloom’s classification, participants are to pick 1-2 question types that would engage/spark this discussion in their context/situation and support the learning goal(s) of that.
Step 3: Participants are to provide:
(1) a brief context
(2) the learning goal of that context
(3) the question type(s)
(4) a brief explanation of why and how that question type could engage in a conversation or learning in that particular situation.
Step 4: Participants are to respond and/or clarify on 1-2 classmates’ posts.
The facilitation team will model this activity by having one pre-loaded example and facilitate the discussion
Day 5-6 – Activity Three in #4-activity-three channel (teaching, social and cognitive presence) (est. time: 35-45 min)
Building on the reading and Activity Two, the purpose of this activity is to practice writing questions.
Each participant is to construct two action/discussion inspiring questions.
Step 1: Building on the context and learning goal scenario the learner posted in Activity Two, participants are to create a question for that question type identified, which would be suitable for the situation. Both the selected question type and the question itself should be posted (i.e. Type: Playground – [Question]).
Step 2: Participants are to create a second question that is specifically related to their group’s facilitation week topic (example: data, motivation, etc.) and supports the listed learning goal(s). Post both the question and question type.
Step 3: Participants will respond/clarify on a minimum of two classmates’ posts.
The facilitation team will model the activity by having one pre-loaded example and summarize the posted questions and question-types after the activity ends.
Day 6-7 morning – Reflection activity in the #4-activity-four channel (social and cognitive presence) (est. time: 15-20 min)
The purpose of this activity is to support the importance of reflection in the learning process.
Participants will complete an anonymous survey to highlight their Aha moments, something new they learned or surprising fact they saw, read, or researched during the week.
The facilitation team will share the survey results and provide a short summary. (teaching and cognitive presence)
Community of Inquiry (CoI) Presences
Teaching Presence
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- A welcome email, welcome message, instructions, detailed schedule, introduction video with transcript, and readings list will help to create a guiding and supporting environment which will introduce the teaching presence from the facilitators’ point of view.
- The facilitation team will model behaviours, encourage and support participants, draw in learners into discussions and summarize topics to show teaching presence and provide space for it in the different channels.
- The readings, videos, activities, triggers were selected to encourage the learners to research and actively discuss content, feelings and construct meaning.
- Collaborative communication tool will be used to encourage and assist participants to collaborate, question, respond or ask for assistance.
Social Presence
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- The welcome email and the first activity aims to help promote a friendly tone and safe space for social presence and fun.
- The selected technology allows for convenient and centralized social interactions: profile pictures, display names, fun images, gifs, memes, videos, and 24/7 access to show more “synchronous” elements in an asynchronous environment.
- The two main activities (two and three) are planned to spark discussion, collaboration to create and promote social presence and to help and build a CoI.
- The facilitation team joins the participants in the activities; personal experience and emotional projection make the instructor more human and personable and approachable.
Cognitive Presence
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- The cognitive presence will be present during the week via the main activities. Participants will demonstrate lower and higher-level thinking and learning through making connections between their personal facilitation experience and questions/trigger events and identifying suitable question types for their situations and also practicing creating questions themselves.
- The reflection activity with the short survey will allow learners to reflect on what they learned, what they found interesting, or surprising, and provide the facilitation team to assess learning as well.
References & Concept Sources
Bates, T. (2015). Teaching in a digital age. Retrieved from https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/
Berger, W. (2014. Aug 14.). Questions Are the New Answers, with Warren Berger. Retrieved from YouTube website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ALlGU2GYbk
Dunlap, J. C., & Lowenthal, P. R. (2018). Online educators’ recommendations for teaching online: Crowdsourcing in action. Open Praxis, 10(1), 79. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.10.1.721
Ertmer, P. A., Sadaf, A., & Ertmer, D. J. (2011). Student-content interactions in online courses: the role of question prompts in facilitating higher-level engagement with course content. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 23(2–3), 157–186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-011-9047-6
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2–3), 87–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6
Sadaf, A., & Olesova, L. (2017). Enhancing cognitive presence in online case discussions with questions based on the practical inquiry model. American Journal of Distance Education, 31(1), 56–69. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2017.1267525
Shea, P., & Bidjerano, T. (2010). Learning presence: Towards a theory of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and the development of a communities of inquiry in online and blended learning environments. Computers & Education, 55, 1721–1731. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2010.07.017
Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013). Facilitation. In Teaching in blended learning environments: Creating and sustaining communities of inquiry. (pp. 45–61). Retrieved from http://www.aupress.ca/books/120229/ebook/03_Vaughan_et_al_2013-Teaching_in_Blended_Learning_Environments.pdf
Illustration photos are from Pexels.com and Unsplash.com.