I have found the article on effective online facilitation in the Australian Flexible Learning Framework to give a useful set of guidlines about what they think this is… see http://pre2005.flexiblelearning.net.au/guides/facilitation.html
Facilitation skills include:
- engaging the learner in the learning process, particularly at the beginning
- appropriate questioning, listening and feedback skills
- the ability to provide direction and support to learners
- skills in managing online discussion
- ability to build online teams
- a capacity for relationship building
- motivational skills.
It is also seen as important for teachers to have a positive attitude to online teaching and an ability to be innovative and experimental (risk taking).
There is a problem with this though… The teacher may be too directive with independant learners. Nellie http://nelliemuller.blogspot.com/2008/09/learners-teach-themselves-foc08.html makes a good point in her blog on this in relfecting on Carl Rogers approach to teaching http://www.panarchy.org/rogers/learning.html.
I like too Daryl Cook’s simple descriptions of the terms facilitating, moderating and teaching, thought ‘teaching’ is probably being defined differently today that it was 30 years ago…http://darylcook.com/category/personal/foc08/
September 12, 2008 at 3:05 am
The only down side of such a guideline is that it is written from the perspective of the education and teaching sector. While that may well be the sector you are in, I reckon when it comes to facilitating online communities (as apposed to class cohorts called communities) it pays to look or at least think in terms wider than the concerns of the education sector. Generic facilitation skills can greatly enhance teaching practices, but teaching practices can dramatically impact on a sense of community.