Unit 1 Overview
In this unit, we will begin by exploring your own ideas of what makes facilitation effective. We’ll draw on familiar concepts from your past studies like theories of learning, learning design, and design thinking, and combine them with online facilitation approaches such as social, teaching, and cognitive presence. These ideas will help prepare you to design and lead student-centered learning experiences.
Our work will focus on building strong online learning communities. We’ll use the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework to explore what it means to create and maintain “teaching presence,” and we’ll consider practical ways to build safe, inclusive spaces for learning, both asynchronously and synchronously.
This unit is also a planning-intensive time. In the first two weeks, you’ll orient yourself to the course, meet your facilitation team, and select a topic and week for your facilitation. In the second half, you’ll collaborate with your team to design your facilitation module, incorporating feedback from your instructor.
You’ll complete two assignments in this unit:
Assignment 1 (Individual) You will develop a visual or structured representation and accompanying blog post of how facilitators support Teaching, Social and Cognitive Presence in digital learning.
Assignment 2 (Team) Your team will draft a plan for your upcoming facilitation week and submit it for feedback by the end of week 3. The final version is due at the end of week 4.
Learning Activities
Week 1
- Activity 1-1: Orient yourself to the course.
- Activity 1-2: Test your access to Moodle.
- Activity 1-3: Record and post a short personal reflection video
- Activity 1-4: 3-2-1 Blog post
- Activity 1-5: Meet your facilitation team, choose a topic & pick a facilitation week. Use this Google doc to see the teams and fill in the table with your week and topic.
- Activity 1-6 Complete the Doodle poll with suggested times & date for a synchronous session in Week 2.
Week 2
- Activity 2-1: Participate in Moodle discussion
- Activity 2-2: Attend a bi-weekly synchronous welcome session
Week 3
- Activity 3-1: Participate in Moodle discussion on synchronous & asynchronous facilitation
- Activity 3-2: Teamwork designing & developing Assignment 2
- Activity 3-3: Test your access to Moodle Innovate. Please ensure you have access to Moodle even if you do not plan on using Moodle for your facilitation week as other teams may be using it.
- Activity 3-4: Post a draft facilitation plan on blog.
Week 4
- Activity 4-1: Gallery walk. View and respond to class Infographic & blog posts
- Continue planning your facilitation week
- Continue participating in Moodle discussions
Assignments due this Unit
- Submit Assignment 1: Infographic & blog post
- Submit Assignment 2: Part 1 (your facilitation plan)
Activity Descriptions
Activity 1-1 | Orient yourself to the course
View the course overview, review the course schedule to get a sense of the flow of the course, and read through the course assignments.
Activity 1-2 | Test your access to Moodle
Please log into the Moodle course by the end of week one. If I haven’t seen you in there by the end of the week I will be reaching out to you to make sure everything is ok.
Activity 1-3 | Record & post a short personal reflection video
After completing the “Online Instructor Roles” reading from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, record a short (maximum 3-minute) video reflecting on a memorable learning experience where the facilitator (instructor, mentor, coach, etc.) made a positive impact on you. This could be in a course, a workshop, or any other formal or informal learning context.
In your video, reflect on:
- What made this learning experience effective or meaningful?
- Which of the roles from the reading did this facilitator demonstrate?
- Were there other facilitation qualities you appreciated that weren’t mentioned in the article?
- How might these insights shape your own approach to facilitation?
Post your video to the General Class Discussion Forum in Moodle. Watch at least one peer’s video and respond with a short comment or reaction.
Activity 1-4 |3-2-1 blog post
By the end of week 1, write a blog post on your initial response to the topic of digital facilitation using a format known as 3-2-1. There are no right or wrong answers in this activity. The blog post is meant to be a starting point that you will revisit at the end of the course to see how your own thoughts and ideas on digital facilitation have changed over the course.
Your blog post is meant to quickly capture your initial thoughts about digital facilitation and follow this 3-2-1 structure.
- 3 initial thoughts, ideas or feelings you have about facilitation in digital environments.
- 2 questions you have about digital facilitation.
- 1 metaphor or simile about digital facilitation. This can be text or an image but should be something that metaphorically captures and represents your own thoughts on digital facilitation.
This is not meant to be a long activity, so keep your blog post to no more than 300 words using headings and lists to differentiate between the three sections.
Activity 1-5 | Meet your facilitation team, choose your topic, and pick a facilitation week
More information on how the facilitation weeks will work and a sign-up sheet for topics will be available via a Google Doc I will share in week 1 of the course.
Activity 2-1 | Participate in Moodle discussion
After you have done the week 1 and 2 course readings, you can participate in the discussion on Moodle. Our discussion will revolve around what a facilitator is and what they need to do to set the stage for a successful learning experience. We’ll also look to turn the theoretical Community of Inquiry into more practical and pragmatic items that you can work with as a facilitator.
Activity 2-2 Participate in bi-weekly synchronous sessions or view the recording
Every other week I will host a synchronous session. The sessions will include some instruction from me with opportunities for your participation as well as time for questions about what you’re working on in the course. The sessions are optional and I will post the recording as well as my slides and speaking notes. Cameras can be on or off, participation is not mandatory.
Activity 3-1 |Participate in Moodle discussion on synchronous and asynchronous facilitation
During weeks 3 & 4 there will be a Moodle discussion on synchronous and asynchronous facilitation.
Activity 3-2 | Teamwork designing & developing Assignment 2
This week is a planning week for you and your facilitation team. During this week, you should be meeting and communicating regularly with your teammates as you plan your week of facilitation. You should be discussing and creating learning objectives, finding and vetting appropriate content (readings, videos, etc), designing activities, and making technology decisions on platforms you will use to deliver the content. See Assignment 2 for more information.
Activity 3-3 | Test your access to Moodle Innovate
Please test your log in access to Moodle Innovate Now with your RRU credentials. Moodle Innovate Now is a different Moodle platform than the one we use for our class. Moodle Innovate Now is located at https://innovate.royalroads.ca/now/ You and your team can use this as a platform to facilitate your week. Even if you do not plan on using Moodle as your facilitation platform, please make sure that you have access to Moodle Innovate as other teams may want to use it during the weeks when you are a learner.
Activity 3-4 | Post a draft facilitation plan on one team members blog
By the end of the first week one of your team members (you will decide as a team which of you) will post on their blog a brief outline of your facilitation week plan (see Assignment 2).
Activity 4-1 | Digital Gallery Walk: View and respond to class infographics and blog posts
Do a virtual gallery walk around your classmate’s blog posts and representations of their learning. A gallery walk in a face to face classroom is an activity where content is posted on the physical walls of the classroom and the learners move from one piece of content to the next. In this case, the content is your classmates blog posts & assignments and the walls are their blogs. Review 3 or 4 of them and leave a comment on at least one.
If you need one, a prompt structure for your comment can use a simple format such as “I Like, I Wonder”. It does not have to be an extensive critique of their work. Just make a point or two about what stands out to you about their work. And if someone posts a comment on your post, remember to respond to their comment.
Note: If you are moderating comments on your blog, please allow these comments through so that I am able to see who has completed the activity. Or, if there is a reason why you do not wish the comments to be visible on your blog, please email me the comment directly so that I can be sure to give proper participation credit to the person who left the comment.