Month: August 2021

I’ve recently begun a course on course facilitation in an Online Learning Environments (OLE).  The purpose of this post is to explore my initial thoughts on the subject before getting into the meat of the course.  I’ll likely write another post near the end to compare against this one and see if and how my perspective on the subject has changed.

Three Initial Thoughts

I think three of the core elements of a well facilitated online course are course design, teaching presence, and the educator’s social presence.  To begin, the design of the course so that learners know what to do, can access what they need when they need it, and know how to access help is hugely important.  If the educator can build the course in such a way as to provide learners with these needs, already their experience will be improved.  Following the development of the course, the educator needs to be present.  This can be achieved in many different ways, but the goal is for learners to have a general understanding that the educator is available for them to guide, assist, and answer questions as necessary.  Finally, it’s important for the educator to be socially present.  This is to develop a persona online by presenting the impression of a real, approachable, and relatable individual.  There’s much more to course facilitation, but I think these are likely the three most important elements.

Two Questions

Two questions I have regarding the facilitation of a course in an  OLE concern time and learner management.  First, as I begin to learn more and more about how to effectively facilitate a course in an OLE, the list of responsibilities on the educator’s shoulders grows longer and longer.  Teaching effectively is always a time consuming enterprise, but I’m beginning to wonder, how can an educator realistically manage all the recommended elements of an effective online course (or likely, many) without having the task completely take over that individual’s life? Second, considering the huge amount of responsibility already on the educator’s plate, how can they be sure to make themselves aware of any learners who need help, and communicate with them on a personal level, before it’s too late?

One Analogy

When I think about effective course facilitation in an OLE, I think it’s well represented by the image at the top of this post.  I like  that the focus in the image is literally on the learner.  The educator is present, but standing back and observing.  He’s ready to step in if necessary to help, but giving enough room for the learner to experience the task and learn from success or failure.  This is perhaps a little on the nose, but when I saw the picture I thought it represented the relationship well.

The past eight weeks have been really great.  I’ve been enrolled in a course that’s given me the opportunity to put much of the theory I’ve learned in the past year to practical use.  Learning the theory has been fascinating and I’ve loved every moment of it, but until now, I’ve rarely had the opportunity to put my new knowledge to use.  The structure of this course has allowed me to build a resource which I can make use of immediately in my practice, which has been awesome.  The purpose of this post is to reflect on my experiences while going through that process.

Shortly after determining a problem to solve using a resource, I engaged my students in a group interview as part of the Empathize stage of the Design Thinking process (https://dschool.stanford.edu/resources/getting-started-with-design-thinking).  This stage of the process was valuable, as it introduced my learners’ priorities, frustrations with the current resource, and their recommendations on how they would like to see this type of resource executed.  Some of these lessons reinforced my existing understanding (such as the efficacy of the flipped classroom and value of learners’ time) while others I hadn’t considered (such as how an accessibility concern, like colour blindness, impacts a learner’s experience with software).  I made use of these insights by comparing them to the literature on instructional design and learning theory, which informed my design moving forward.  This experience was hugely valuable.  I almost certainly would not have approached building this resource in the manner I did, If I had not first consulted with the end users of the tool.  I definitely see the value in the Empathize phase and plan to make use of it in the future, when time and the opportunity present themselves.

I’ve received quite a few recommendations on how I can improve on the first draft of my resource.  For example, it was suggested that I include approximate time commitments for my learners for each module.  This is a great idea and aligns super well with the request from my learners to show respect for their time.  I plan to include this in the introduction to each module.  It was also suggested that I include written transcripts for each of the three included videos for those people who would prefer to learn by reading the content.  This is a great point which I really should have considered  on my own.  Finally, it was also recommended that I build a facilitator’s guide on what to include in the prescribed synchronous session.  This was something I had considered, but hadn’t gotten around to completing, so will definitely add that to my list of to-dos.

One final step I would like to take before putting the finishing touches on the resource and call it complete, is to present it to my learners to get their feedback.  This is my last week with them before they take a break leading up to the beginning of the fall semester, and I would like  the rest of the class to have this available for them at the beginning of the year.  Depending on the feedback to get from it, I will either make revisions to make it more effective, or will move on to the next skill for which a similar resource will be applicable… and keep on building them.

In conclusion, this was a great experience.  I was able to apply my knowledge of instructional design, learning theory, and media production to build a pretty solid evidence based resource.  I’m happy with how it’s turned out so far and I’m looking forward to putting it to use.