{"id":457,"date":"2021-08-29T09:29:44","date_gmt":"2021-08-29T16:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/?p=457"},"modified":"2021-08-29T09:29:44","modified_gmt":"2021-08-29T16:29:44","slug":"online-course-facilitation-initial-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/online-course-facilitation-initial-thoughts\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Course Facilitation: Initial Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Vance Osterhout<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nhttps:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/178\/2021\/08\/Course-Facilitation-Initial-Thoughts.wav<\/a><\/audio>\n

I’ve recently begun a course on course facilitation in an Online Learning Environments (OLE).\u00a0 The purpose of this post is to explore my initial thoughts on the subject before getting into the meat of the course.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Three Initial Thoughts<\/h3>\n

I think three of the core elements of a well facilitated online course are course design, teaching presence, and the educator’s social presence.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 If the educator can build the course in such a way as to provide learners with these needs, already their experience will be improved.\u00a0 Following the development of the course, the educator needs to be present.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Finally, it’s important for the educator to be socially present.\u00a0 This is to develop a persona online by presenting the impression of a real, approachable, and relatable individual.\u00a0 There’s much more to course facilitation, but I think these are likely the three most important elements.<\/p>\n

Two Questions<\/h3>\n

Two questions I have regarding the facilitation of a course in an\u00a0 OLE concern time and learner management.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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?<\/p>\n

One Analogy<\/h3>\n

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.\u00a0 I like\u00a0 that the focus in the image is literally on the learner.\u00a0 The educator is present, but standing back and observing.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This is perhaps a little on the nose, but when I saw the picture I thought it represented the relationship well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve recently begun a course on course facilitation in an Online Learning Environments (OLE).\u00a0 The purpose of this post is to explore my initial thoughts on the subject before getting into the meat of the course.\u00a0 I’ll likely write another post near the end to compare against this one and see if and how my … Continue reading Online Course Facilitation: Initial Thoughts<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt528"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":521,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions\/521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0162\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}