Tips and Tricks for Effective Discussion Based Online Facilitation

Thursday, September 26, 2013   Harvard Graduate School  

Thursday, September 17, 2014   Harvard Graduate School  

Who is Stan?

Sites and Resources

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Why are learning community models important for learning?

How do we build and sustain strong learning communities and interactions in an online discussion?

General Discussion

Go to one or more of these sites and pull out some interesting tid bit or concept you want to talk about.

Three Models For Online Communities And How To Tell The Difference
http://www.leadernetworks.com/2010/06/three-models-for-online-communities.html

Fostering Collaboration to Enhance Online Instruction
http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde30/pdf/article_5.pdf

Collaborative Learning: Group Work and Study Teams
http://tfsc.uark.edu/193.php 

What is an Effective Online Community 

http://voicethread.com/?#u383316.b476366.i2535950 

Stan's E-Learning Resource List on Diigo

https://www.diigo.com/list/stanfreeda/E-Learning/3fql4izq1

What are the various strategies that facilitators have in their bag of tricks when they are facilitating?

What's the trick to designing good discussion prompts?

Let's take time to do this activity.

Why do we call them facilitators (vs teachers…for ex)?

Why do you think?  Based on our previous activities and discussions, let's discuss this one.

How do you prepare, manage and evaluate and support a cadre of online facilitators?

Use protocols to avoid getting trapped.

Good organization skills.

Good people skills.

Keep your focus on the quality of the overall program.

Be supportive and nurturing, not accusative and punitive.

Be fair.

Err on the side of facilitator, whenever you can.

Be communicative.

Acknowledge good practices.

Appreciate the people you work with.

Don't compromise standards.

Any "stories" from successful or unsuccessful facilitation attempts?

Sure.  Of course.  :)  Who doesn't?  You first! 

What kind of ongoing support do facilitators need?

They need to know what's going on with the entire program.

They need to feel valued and appreciated.

Reminders of program protocols and expectations.

Interactions with other facilitators is very important.

They need to know you have their back, regardless.

A Few Resources

Being Successful with Online Learning, an OPEN NH online course.

Online Discussions page available in all OPEN NH courses.

Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics