Photo by Frank Grießhammer, Flickr, used under CC BY 2.0
I wrote a post nine weeks ago about my perceptions of facilitation in digital environments using the 3-2-1 format. To wrap up LRNT 528, I have revisited those thoughts to reflect on my learnings and to add new insights I have gathered along the way.
Past and present thoughts about facilitation in digital environments:
Past: Great face-to-face facilitators are not always great digital facilitators. Facilitating in digital environments requires a different set of skills.
Present: Digital facilitation is challenging. It requires a specific set of skills and involves receiving regular feedback from learners (Garrison et al., n.d.). Regularly soliciting feedback to see how a course is going is an excellent way to identify those struggling, not just concerning facilitation but with course content and technology as well. Thus, being a great digital facilitator involves listening, learning, and growing to effectively guide learners toward realizing their goals.
Past: We all have a lot to learn. Digital up-skilling should be continuous for anyone working online.
Present: Technology is ever-changing, so anyone teaching online has to be willing and able to change with the times and needs of their learners. Students need teachers who can stimulate or at least maintain their interest in the online course when using technology (Moore, 1989). But, choosing the right educational apps or tools can be a real challenge. Some challenges include technological issues, lack of familiarity, and less than enthusiastic adoption, which can decrease student participation in the course and the efficacy of the learning (Anderson, 2018). Bates’ (2015) SECTION model can provide digital facilitators with a simple framework for making effective decisions about the choice and use of technology for teaching and learning.
Past: The virtual spaces where digital facilitation takes place are not all created equal. We need to be humble while we strive to overcome any limitations.
Present: Digital learning environments vary considerably concerning participant profiles, means of inter-communication, goals for teaching and learning, activities, resources, digital tools, support, assessment strategies, and culture (Bates, 2015). As online educators, we must adopt a responsive facilitation approach in these environments by continuously gauging how we are showing up for our learners. One way to do this might be to send out a mid-course survey to gather student feedback on the curriculum, technology, and facilitation approach to make quick improvements while the course is in progress (Garrison et al., n.d.).
My responses to the two questions I had about digital facilitation:
1) How can facilitators humanize the online experience? In particular, how can they create natural dialogue in these spaces?
Courses designed using the CoI framework, where collaboration is emphasized, can humanize the online experience for participants by creating a safe space for learners to develop meaningful relationships and offering them opportunities to express themselves authentically as they engage in dialogue with others (Garrison et al., 2000). According to Lopez (n.d.), the following facilitation design strategies can be employed:
- Be your authentic self when creating audio or video content.
- Skip traditional written introductions and replace them with a biography using pictures, storytelling, vlog or through music.
- Establish your presence. Communicate often by short video/audio clips. Reassure the students you are continually present in order to help them succeed.
- Do not be perfect. It is refreshing for students to see you as a “person.” Therefore, video, and micro lectures should be left in their original state. Save yourself some editing time.
- Provide messages of encouragement by providing stories of your own student experience and inspirational or motivational videos.
- Continually ask for feedback on class content and framework. Construct a chat room where students may submit questions or concerns anonymously.
- Share an aspect of your life weekly such as a joke you heard, your pet’s latest habit, a hobby of choice, or a show you just recently began viewing in effort to illustrate elements of you as a “real” person.
- During micro lecture recordings, make an appearance. It is always refreshing to put a “face to the voice.”
- Use other supplemental materials such as TedTalks or videos with presentational speakers.
- For asynchronous courses, offer a random “Live” check-in where students may stop by just to say hello or address course questions/concerns (para. 4).
2) What does it take to run effective online sessions where everyone can be heard? In other words, how do you make each member feel involved when facilitating a large and diverse group?
In digital environments, it is important that facilitators encourage respectful synchronous and asynchronous discussion to develop group cohesion. One way of doing this is to begin a course by setting “ground rules” to establish a safe space and a foundation upon which the group’s communication could occur (Lalonde, 2020, section 4, para. 11). In synchronous settings, facilitators can also encourage more reluctant or shy students to actively engage in discussion by letting everyone know they are welcome to use the chat function if they feel more comfortable doing so.
COI, digital facilitation, and future course design:
Garrison and colleagues’ (2000) COI model was a helpful framework throughout the design and delivery of my team’s digital facilitation week, because it made visible the underlying invisible assumptions designers typically make about online course design. I really enjoyed exploring the COI framework and diving deep into facilitation strategies I can employ in future course design projects.
References
Anderson, T. (2018). How Communities of Inquiry drive teaching and learning in the digital age. Contact North. https://teachonline.ca/tools-trends/how-communities-inquiry-drive-teaching-and-learning-digital-age
Bates, T. (2015). Chapter 8: Choosing and using media in education: The SECTIONS model. In Teaching in a Digital Age. Pressbooks. https://opentextbc.ca/teachinginadigitalage/part/9-pedagogical-differences-between-media/
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), p. 87-105, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1096-7516(00)00016-6.
Garrison, D.R., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Vaughn, N. (n.d.).The Community of Inquiry [Website]. In CoI Framework, CoI Survey. Retrieved from: https://coi.athabascau.ca/coi-model/coi-survey/
Lalonde, C. (2020). Facilitation in digital learning environments: A companions reader for LRNT 528. Sections 1-5. https://edtechbooks.org/digital_facilitation
Lopez, M. (n.d.). Humanizing online learning. The University of Texas Center for Teaching Excellence. Retrieved from: https://www.utrgv.edu/cte/resources-new/online-teaching-resources/humanizing-online-learning/index.htm
Moore, M. (1989). Editorial: Three types of interaction. American Journal of Distance Education, 3(2), p. 1-7. Retrieved from http://aris.teluq.uquebec.ca/portals/598/t3_moore1989.pdf
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