A. Facilitative Approach

• Good communication skills,
• asking “good” questions,
• being sensitive to the needs of participants and
• ensuring a safe environment for risk-taking and participation

… these are all qualities that lean on our facilitation skills. Facilitation of online discourse is one of the areas where you project your teaching presence.

In other units we use the term facilitation in a general/global sense, where you are guiding your students through your course elements during the time they are in your course – where you welcome them, introduce yourself and encourage them to introduce themselves, use icebreakers, communicate regularly with them about expectations and requirements, for example. But we also want to examine the key element to the meaning of facilitation in a teaching context which is the facilitation of online discourse.

Facilitating Online Discourse

Opportunities for students to interact – with you, with other student, with the learning – increases their engagement with the course which in turn motivates them to persist. The Community of Inquiry accounts for social presence in addition to teaching and cognitive presence as a key element of successful online learning. And a primary means for social interaction is learning through social discourse. It is for this reason that we have you practice your facilitation skills in synchronous and asynchronous formats in this course: to develop or further enhance your skills facilitating discourse in synchronous and asynchronous online environments.

Asking good questions is the place to start with a facilitative mindset. Asking questions and making the space for students to answer is a key shift in the moving from a lecturing instructor to a learning facilitator. When you as an expert asks questions, you are signalling to students what’s important. Asking questions in either discussions or in giving feedback, can help learners clarify what they know and what they think, as well as assess what they don’t know. It promotes learners going to a deeper level of analysis and reflection. And asking good questions helps shifts the responsibility for learning onto students, and affirms the instructor’s role in facilitating discourse as that of guiding student learning. We are going to talk more about creating and using questions to facilitate learning in Unit 4 and especially in Unit 5.

Responding to the Changing Course Dynamic

Another more subtle skill we employ when we take a facilitative approach to online teaching is being able to adapt to the changing dynamic of a course’s delivery. A course has a beginning, middle and end, and there are different duties that we preform in our roles as facilitators that are linked to students’ success at the different stages in an online course.

Here’s one description of how our roles and that of our students can evolve (we’ve already seen this table in Unit 1):

_{(Based on Salmon, G. (2000) E-moderating: The key to teaching and learning)}

Creating a Sense of Learning Community Instructor’s Role:

Creating a welcoming atmosphere

Hospitality — a sense that we are welcome to participate — is a foundation of creating dialogue. When new students arrive in an online conferencing space, there are none of the physical signs that can suggest a safe and hospitable environment; no tables to arrange in a circle, for example. Posting your own autobiography, and including in it some mention of your life outside the class, is one way to create that sense of hospitality.

An important step in the creation of a safe space is to make it clear to students that it is a space for their participation, and that they will be spending time there with others. Many instructors ask students to post a biography as their first assignment: this helps to establish a sense of shared space.

Creating opportunities for social interaction and dialogue

Course moderating takes place in both a social and professional context. As the facilitator and instructor, you also have a role as “good host” in the discussion forms. A warm social atmosphere, within limits, encourages enthusiasm for the course.

Modeling participation

Your postings in discussion forums provide participants with examples of professional, courteous dialogue. When in your postings you refer to and build on others’ contributions, you model to students the idea of paying attention to each other’s thoughts.

Your presence encourages others to participate, often boosting the perceived value of the discussion forum. This is especially true in the early stages of a class.

Your participation establishes your virtual presence as the class instructor.

Encouraging participation

If dialogue and discussion are a significant part of the course, you will want to be sure that everyone is participating. Methods to boost participation in online learning is a key theme in this unit, as well as Units 4 and 5.

Setting limits

As moderator and instructor, it is your responsibility to ensure that discussion remains respectful and professional. Modeling appropriate dialogue is one aspect of this.

You may wish to include a definition of the type of dialogue you expect within the course in the course outline, or a “how this course works” section.

Consider holding an early discussion with students on their expectations for online dialogue. If postings do not conform to the class expectations, speak to the student who made them directly. Some instructors prefer to talk to the student synchronously, in person, by phone, or by web-conferencing. E-mail allows you and the student to discuss the issue privately.

Posing questions

Especially important in Stages 3 and 4, posing questions can be used to begin discussions, re-focus discussions and ask for clarification of points that have confused other participants, and to encourage participation.

Deepening the dialogue

Your role is to push the dialogue/discussion towards a deeper, more meaningful exploration of the materials by re-focusing discussion, reinforcing and identifying significant themes for inquiry, and building on students’ contribution.

Encouraging Participation – Student Roles

Increasing participation

Depending on the reason students may have for not participating, you may be able to assess the situation and come up with mitigating strategies:

Lost or lurking?

Participants might not be posting because they’re reading what others are posting but not contributing themselves — “lurking” in the online world. On the other hand, they might not be posting because they have not been able to access the discussion forum. If someone has not participated, send an e-mail or call them to ensure they have access.

Marks

Most instructors award at least some marks for participation in discussion spaces. Decide early on how you will deal with “I agree” posts. Will they “count” for participation marks? We address assessment and participation later in this unit, as well as in Units 4 and 5.

Clarify expectations

Requiring substantive contributions from participants reduces lurking. What are you asking for? Opinions? Reference to readings? A tie-in to personal experience? This should be clear in your question or discussion-starter.

Instructions for participation can vary depending on the stage of the class. In the beginning, provide detailed, specific instructions, and then later, loosen the requirements as participation takes off. For example, in Week 2, you may write: “In the discussion forum, post a response to the question. Your response should be no more than 100 words in length, and should make reference to at least one of the readings. Once you have posted your own response, comment on one or two of your classmates’ responses.” By week 13, your instructions may be, “Post your responses in the discussion forum.”

Creating a social space

Many online courses at BCIT always include a “water cooler” – a special forum where students are encouraged to converse about things not related, or only tangentially related, to course materials. This is where people can talk about the arrival of new babies, discuss their job searches or mutter about workload – the same kinds of conversation we expect to have with colleagues at coffee break, or with classmates in a face-to-face class. A designated forum encourages students to have this kind of conversation, building the sense of community in the class. A dedicated forum can also help keep a professional focus in the class forums.

Much of how we have structured our discussion in this book is based on this idea that our roles and the corresponding tasks we perform as instructors shift and change and are responsive to the needs of our students at the various stages of the life of a course. Think of a course as a journey, and like a journey, students complete it different from when they entered (hopefully), based on their interactions with the learning, with you, with other students, and with themselves, regardless of how successful they may be on their assignments.

Facilitation is a huge skillset and the goal here has only been to make the point that it is an approach that works well in the online teaching environment, regardless of the design or specific pedagogies of your teaching domain.