The timing for this course is remarkable – perfect to be taking a deeper dive into the nuts and bolts of facilitation just as the preparation for the Fall semester is ramping up.
The 3 thoughts or ideas that I have about digital facilitation are pretty practically based right now. (1) My goal is to work within a hi-flex framework, attempting to keep student need and availability at the core of my thinking, (2) finding my ‘voice’ as a digital facilitator, and (3) the desire to ensure that the teaching role (Vaughan et al., 2013) is available to be taken on by different students in different circumstances. This is the challenging one, as there are power and system pieces inherent in schooling that need to be approached to make this real.
The 2 main questions I have about digital facilitation currently are that, (1) I’m wondering about ways to create group cohesiveness within a predominantly asynchronous context. I know several ways in theory, and am interested to see how these play out in my own and my colleagues classrooms. And (2), as I’m working with first-year students who have a variety of skill levels with technology, I’m curious about how to make sure that the learning curve of learning the technology does not overshadow the learning of the content itself (Weller, 2020).
My simile about facilitation:
I’m seeing it like a garden. We (as instructors) create the soil conditions (preparing the course materials and planning) and plant the seeds (students learning). A lot of the growth happens out of our sight, but we need to believe it is happening and to look at the way the visible plant is developing to get hints at what is happening under the surface. We can control the watering (more information), the pruning (formative feedback), but we can’t control the weather (COVID, student life circumstances, etc). We can put row cover on for protection (support students through flexibility and through connections to student services) when there are adverse circumstances in students lives. We can recognize that they (students) each bring their own knowledge and background, and that even though we think we are planting carrots, a beautiful, vibrant and productive squash plant might grow.
I agree with your question regarding cohesiveness. As a student with online experience before COVID hit and before taking this program, I have often wondered about the group dynamics in online environments and what it takes to make it work. The garden comparison is a great one! So much on gardening is believing that the first steps were done correctly, and it takes time to see if that is true. The same can be said for digital facilitation. We cannot see the results immediately; we must be patient. In face-to-face environments, we can see perplexed looks on students’ faces or the Ah Ha! moment when they understand something they were struggling with. Those visuals are less common in digital environments.
Thanks for sharing!
Your observation about the power structures that exist within a classroom and how those might affect learners take a more active role in establishing teaching presence is astute. Classrooms – whether face to face or virtual – are never neutral environments.
Hi Lisa – I really enjoyed reading your blog post, but specifically your simile about facilitation. You are right – as facilitators we have control over most components of the process. We can nourish and prune our plants. It is most rewarding when we see them (the students) take the knowledge and grow and apply it in ways that we may not have considered possible.