Facilitating an Online Community

Reflections on Online Facilitating

Goals set for Online Facilitation session.

• Topic/concept to be discussed

a) suitability of the medium chosen -

Question: Is the combination of Wiki, Blackboard, face to face the best way to deliver this course?

b) suitability of the course structure -

Question: Does the timing and structure of the course allow the best learning experience for the participants?

c) a plan for warm ups - given the large group -

Question: What warm-ups do you think would work?

d) discussion of assessments and timing -

Question: Are the assessments suitable for determining learning and is the weighting and timing correct?

e) alternate plans -

Question: If you were to run the course would you use other methods and what methods?

I planned do carry this out using a facilitated Elluminate session before which I had circulated a copy of the questions found below, the course Wiki, and an outline of assessment procedures for the course.

Experience

I had an Elluminate-based session planned for the morning of 14^th and 21 November to complete the last part of the course. Unfortunately, neither session took place and I was therefore reduced to carrying out a face-to-face and email discussion with members of the group in order to accomplish the goals I had set for the session.

I will detail my experience of this activity and then link it to a reflection of the overall course and e-learning in my ongoing Blog.at

http://graeme-aworldaway.blogspot.com/

Access

As usual, as I have found with using Elluminate, there were numerous problems the least of which was that our link with Australia did not work through technical problems. This was later described by the techies as a problem with only being able to open one portal at the Australian site which was insufficient for the connection to be viable. This was not a problem that could be addressed by Week two, so using Elluminate was abandoned as the medium by which to carry out the exercise. I had a backup plan of using email and a facilitated face-to-face session which worked well in accomplishing the goals I had set for my Elluminate session.

There were also on-site problems with Elluminate of the usual kind.

The mike, speaker problem seems to surface again and again and even if fixed on one occasion it appears later in the session or doesn’t work in the next session.

Although most people had experience of Elluminate there were problems with the use of the mike (leaving it open so stopping others contributing), improper use of the text facility (texting off subject, texting out of sequence) and with the use of the Whiteboard (just using it as a doodle pad).

I also found that most people had not read the discussion points I had sent out before the session and when we finally did a face-to-face, I had to go over these again.

I also found that most of the people I had the face-to-face with were even less informed about how to facilitate on line learning than I was. Their perception was that it is a new and scary medium, which most people (in my group) would rather avoid than have to contend with.

I did get feedback from some that they had explored using this medium before with students and it had been roundly rejected (not for any logical reason other than it was new, scary, extra work)

Reflection

On reflection, I do not think I would use Elluminate again until the technical problems are sorted out. Although I have heard that it is trouble free from some quarters most of my personal experience, and those that I have talked to at length, say that the problems described above and those that David outlines in his account of his session are typical.

I find it typical that even though material is distributed before a session and instructions are given to participants that, by in large, they come unprepared and hope to ‘wing it’ on the day. My normal face-to-face classes usually have 10% students who do the required work before the session while the other 90% just prefer to chance their arm. I am not sure how to overcome this problem.

Results of Facilitated Discussion

Although the face-to face was initially not a great success it did generate discussion which I facilitated and managed to make some sense of the assessment of the proposed paper I am to deliver online. By using a course Wiki and a course Blog and individual Blog (as has been done on the flexible learning course) participants had a sense that this was a new and exciting dimension to the course and one, that potentially, could overcome some of the problems that had been identified with the course when it was audited as a face-to-face course on 2005.

After the discussion, I was able to adjust the formative assessment component of the course and gain a deeper understanding of how the Wiki outline might be changed to provide a better interface for students.

There was also some useful comment from group members who had carried out online facilitation previously as to how to encourage participation in blogging and that by being responsive to contact from students who were remotely located, facilitated the formation a social presence and an online community.

Reflection

In answer to my questions the members thought that (given the problems with some of the technology I was contemplating using) that sticking to Blackboard, blogs and Wiki were a workable mix for the student group I had.

A quote here from David McQuillan succinctly points this out with regard to Blogs.

“I think that there's definitely evidence of this happening in our
course. I've found some of the feedback that I've received on my blog
very useful, and have appreciated the fairly instantaneous feedback on
putting my thoughts out there. I've also found that the postings of
other people have contributed to my learning process. I've noticed
the feedback aspect happening more as the course has progressed,
presumably as people have gotten used to blogging & using news feed
readers. Presumably the degree to which feedback occurs is one
measure of the strength of the learning community”

I will await the trial of the Wiki as a learning tool and as it forms a formative component of the assessment process it is more conducive to experimentation this way.

The structure of the course again will have to be trialled and my group members had not had a lot of experience of course delivery this way.

I find it difficult to give an informed reflection on warm-up exercises because, as Leigh identified in one of his Blogs, I usually find them trite in face-to-face and nearly meaningless in online situations. If one develops good lines of communication and is responsive to student’s requests, I believe a natural community will form much as it has on the flexible learning course.

The other two questions really cannot be answered by the group and must await a formal evaluation of the proposed 2008 online course.

Overall Reflection

I believe that that the method I choose for my exercise was an unwise choice and in reflection I would stick to Blogging in the future.

I also have to be much more aware of the composition of groups I choose to facilitate and make sure that they have access to or have the knowledge that I require to answer my questions or to ask more realistic questions.