Image created in Canva, adapted from Dunlap, J., & Lowenthal, P. (2018). Online educators’ recommendations for teaching online: Crowdsourcing in action. Open praxis, 10(1), 79-89. https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.10.1.721
As I reflect on my experience as both a learner and a facilitator throughout our LRNT528 journey, here are some thoughts, ideas, and feelings that have surfaced:
- Frameworks, such as the Community of Inquiry, offer an evidence-based structure that guides the entire facilitation process, from design and creation, to production, delivery and evaluation of the learning event. It informed and simplified our overall process.
- Effective facilitation in online learning environments requires diverse skill sets to successfully plan, design, build, communicate and facilitate in online learning environments. The roles are interdependent, and one is not more important than another.
- Each facilitation team brought a unique blend of teaching, cognitive and social presence to their learning event. For me, the richness and value of the learning came from the differences, rather than the similarities in the way each team facilitated their one week course.
- I have a new found appreciation for the effort involved in maintaining teaching, social and cognitive presence in online learning. With experience supporting the facilitation of two-hour synchronous sessions, I now understand the skill and stamina it takes to facilitate asynchronous learning consistently and meaningfully.
- Receiving feedback from peers was such an enlightening part of the process. It reinforced that learner preferences differ, and even conflict. Not all learners value the same content, level of effort, or use of technology. It reinforced that facilitation is indeed a balancing act between social, teaching and cognitive presence and and that flexibility and adaptability are essential when responding to learner behaviour and feedback.
2 questions answered based on my new experience learning and leading digital facilitation:
- What are the biggest challenges that facilitators face in digital learning environments that they wouldn’t face in a traditional, in person classroom? In addition to the many unknowns that surfaced during our planning and facilitation week, the greatest challenges came from the technology itself. First, there is a level of digital literacy that is required in order to set up a digital learning environment. And secondly, you never really know if the technology is set up correctly until you, or the learners begin interacting with it in real time. As the week progressed, we had to adapt quickly to a few unexpected issues.
- What strategies work well to encourage and motivate adult learners to engage in discussions and activities during synchronous sessions? In my practice, our sessions are short in duration with participation intentionally small. There are generally more questions than we ever have time to answer. I’ve now seen many tools like Vivicon, Mentimeter, and even Zoom’s whiteboard in action. They could offer fun and engaging ways to address frequently asked questions and could engage parents in knowledge creation and meaning making in ways that typically question and answer breaks cannot. However, using them puts everyone’s digital literacy skills to the test, including the facilitator’s.
1 new metaphor about digital facilitation:
Participating in the facilitation of a one-week course in a formal digital learning environment has increased my confidence as a facilitator and equipped me with new tools. My new metaphor is a toolbox because I now possess a new collection of practical strategies, tools, and resources that I can use to improve my own practice in supporting digital learning within my professional context. That said, a part of me still misses the good old days of in-person learning!