{"id":349,"date":"2025-09-08T21:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T04:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0280\/?p=349"},"modified":"2025-09-18T08:15:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T15:15:23","slug":"balancing-presence-in-an-online-parenting-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0280\/balancing-presence-in-an-online-parenting-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Balancing Presence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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My passion and area of expertise is child development and family wellness. Since 2016, our child psychology clinic has offered workshops to parents and child development professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the complexity of facilitating online learning, it\u2019s important to consider the skills and competencies it requires (University of Wisconsin-Madison, n.d.). Over time and with practice, we have developed clearly defined roles related to the design, creation, marketing, facilitation, and ongoing participant support related to our online offerings.  Our registered psychologist leads content creation, live facilitation and manages social media and online community discussions. I take on the administrative and technical roles, including communications, marketing, sales, design, platform build, publishing and technical support.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Lowenthal & Dunlap (2018), the Community of Inquiry Model (CoI) proposes that engaging online learning communities are created through a balance of teaching, social and cognitive presence, skillfully orchestrated by facilitators. The above infographic illustrates the balancing act faced while integrating the right mix of presence into online parenting courses to ensure participants find solutions to their most pressing parenting challenges.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the Community of Inquiry model, our LRNT528 resources, and my personal experience, here are the top three practical strategies we use within each of the facilitator presences to create engaging, learner-centred experiences:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social presence:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Create and model a safe, trusting and respectful environment.  Parent guilt is real!<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Be authentic, share personal stories, and find shared meaning.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Encourage community building by providing various ways to connect with facilitators and each other:  live Q&As, online parent community, social media channels. <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Teaching presence:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. Intentionally designed, accessible modules that are short, offer choice of relevant strategies, and can be taken individually or as part of a series.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Present current, engaging and relevant science-backed content.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Set clear boundaries around depth of advise provided in synchronous sessions, or online communities.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Cognitive presence:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      1. Provide choice in strategies and practical activities that can be customised to suit unique needs, beliefs and values.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      2. Provide opportunity to submit tracking and reflection work sheets to support the iterative process of change over time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      3. Encourage discussion and curiosity around solutions to parenting problems in live sessions, online parent communities, and social media channels. Parents often share great solutions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        Focussing on teaching, cognitive and social presence through the Community of Inquiry model can help to improve engagement and ultimately the positive impact on the families we serve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Resources<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Dunlap, J., & Lowenthal, P. (2018). Online educators\u2019 recommendations for teaching online: Crowdsourcing in action. Open praxis<\/em>, 10<\/em>(1), 79-89. https:\/\/www.learntechlib.org\/p\/183573\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

        University of Wisconsin-Madison (n.d.). Online Instructor Roles.<\/em> Instructional Resources. https:\/\/kb.wisc.edu\/instructional-resources\/page.php?id=121264<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

        Vaughan, N. D., Cleveland-Innes, M., & Garrison, D. R. (2013).Teaching in Blended Learning Environments: Creating and Sustaining Communities of Inquiry. <\/em>https:\/\/read.aupress.ca\/read\/teaching-in-blended-learning-environments\/section\/43261c4a-6d4c-44cf-8c7f-60bc306eb03a<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        My passion and area of expertise is child development and family wellness. Since 2016, our child psychology clinic has offered workshops to parents and child development professionals. Given the complexity of facilitating online learning, it\u2019s important to consider the skills and competencies it requires (University of Wisconsin-Madison, n.d.). Over time and with practice, we have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":297,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lrnt528"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0280\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0280\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0280\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0280\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0280\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0280\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0280\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions\/356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0280\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0280\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malat-webspace.royalroads.ca\/rru0280\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}