This guide is a summary of outcomes from the High and Low Lights of Online Facilitation event held during LearnScope Online. Thanks to Frankie Forsyth for conducting the event and providing this resource.

During LearnScope Online this forum and quiz focused on the 'High and Low Lights' of online facilitation. Participants were asked to share their experience of 'Things to do and things to avoid' in online facilitation and were asked to vote in an online poll on 'things which motivate you online'.

The role of the facilitator has been identified as crucial in successful online delivery, so the aim of this forum was to develop a list of tips for good practice in online facilitation. The poll had 107 total votes in response to the question ' What motivates you online? Check the three most important things in the list below.' The results were:

• A feeling of community, sharing ideas and information. (14 votes) 13%
  
• Having fun, a sense of humour, enjoying experiences as a group and stimulating, challenging discussions. (13 votes) 12%
  
• Finding, exploring and discovering new things. (13 votes) 12%
  
• A relevant and engaging topic that grabs your interest. (12 votes) 11%
  
• User friendly software (12 votes) 11%
  
• Great facilitation and encouragement and motivation through feedback. (11 votes) 10%
  
• The excitement of finding information on something you’re passionate about/interested in. (10 votes) 9%
  
• Activities that are challenging, timely and supported. (8 votes) 7%
  
• Building of knowledge and sharing information. (7 votes) 7%
  
• Making a connection with people, finding similarities. (7 votes) 7%

The discussion forum resulted in 40 top tips collated from 5 days of discussion and these have been sorted into three sections. (Please bear in mind that some responses could fit into more than one section)

A big thank you goes to Anne Vlaeminck, Alan Morrison, Jane Kerr, Robin Hardiman, Maureen Connors, Elisabeth Todd, Sarah Sutcliffe, Sue McShane, Jane Kerr, Helen Houston, Margaret Cupitt and of course myself (Frankie Forsyth) for contributing to this list of Tips.

Please make use of this list as you wish – there’s some great collective knowledge been built here.

Top Tips

Getting students ready

• Build a sense of connection between participants just as you would in a face to face environment.
  
• Move reasonably quickly from socialization into the focus of the course
  
• Establish online ground rules or guidelines to ensure people are posting to the right place, have an idea of netiquette, know how to disagree or not to shout etc.
  
• Offer an orientation package to clarify what an online course is all about, the hows, the who can help etc
  
• People may need help adapting to ‘getting to know people’ via a solely written medium.
  
• Allocate buddies initially.

Planning the session(s)

• Consider setting up an optional ‘social’ space’ within your course for those who need to socialize more before (and/or while) they contribute to the course. If they then have to do group work they may have formed alliances with other students they will then feel comfortable about working with!
  
• Make discussion areas meaningful i.e. build into some other objective, e.g. tied to assessment, part of research.
  
• Avoid non facilitated, general areas - they often end up focusing purely on ‘how do I do the assessment?’
  
• Consider the ‘what’s in it for me’ (wifm) factor from a participant perspective
  
• Draw people in by setting the scene from a non-users perspective, to give a sense of ease and comfort. Avoid jargon and/or offer a glossary. See http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/search?qt=Glossary&start=11#resulttab and/or http://www.computeruser.com/resources/dictionary/index.html and/or http://flexiblelearning.net.au/nw2000/glossary.htm and http://www.fullcirc.com/community/interactionterms.htm
• Structure discussions to minimize too many conversation topics happening at once.
  
• Buddy system can be fun especially when combined with voice chat, web cams focusing on weekly problem solving activities with solutions submitted online.
  
• Use scenarios relevant to participants’ experiences and knowledge – good springboard for creating new thought
  
• Use games and provide options for participants to work collaboratively eg. ‘we started with email and attachments then moved to text chat, quickly became frustrated with that and moved to voice chat - over the internet - just the best!! - except for the slight time delay which we soon became accustomed to. (msn messenger enables you to text or voice chat and send attachments that can be viewed online)’.
  
• Foster self directed learners through presentation of problems – ‘we researched individually, then shared our new findings with each other then uploaded and shared them with the group. The facilitator was there to support and challenge our learning through the discussion forum and individually via email if we needed it. We also kept an individual journal online of our reflections and learning’.
  
• Bear in mind that the larger the group the more difficult it can be for them to work collaboratively
  
• When presenting a problem keep it authentic and not so familiar that participants slip into a comfortable, well-worn solution. It has to have significant shades of grey and preferably more than one feasible solution. Participants will approach the problem from within their usual problem solving strategies which will most likely differ. The process of justifying, evaluating, considering solutions and points of view can be a good platform for knowledge construction
  
• Create good reflection spaces to allow participants to explore their own wifm factor and judge where to place their limited time and energy.
  
• Before you facilitate online, experience it from a participant perspective.
  
• Experiment with using 'modern' collaborative tools eg online debating tool, share URL tool and a tool to share work online.

Facilitating online

• Draw people into activities as early as possible, provide clear instructions re what participants should write about.
  
• Be ready for some resistance from participants re "Just tell us what we need to know".
  
• Provide quick feedback especially to early postings and encourage participants responding to the contributions of others.
  
• Avoid clogging up course discussion areas with social banter, create specific socializing areas and skillfully manage the appropriateness of discussion in a particular place
  
• Make the discussions specific
  
• Use features like selective release, close them (discussions) off or summarise.
  
• Get the students to take some of the lead and facilitate the discussion (of course once they become comfortable in the environment). Ask them to summarise parts of the discussion - gives them another skill that will become a life skill rather than topic specific, helps their learning of the content too.
  
• Don’t be overly demanding when the students are novice, until they have had time to settle in to their new role.
  
• Acknowledge that people can take quite a bit of time to become comfortable with an online forum - posting one’s ideas is not that easy for everyone. Some do not have time right now, some need more reflecting time and others are reluctant to post because they are not sure whether their ideas are posted on the right thread etc.
  
• Encourage participants to be "multitasker conversers" i.e. be able to hold several conversations at once.
  
• Remember that ‘blending’ on and offline is ok and is great to help late starters. Eg. a phone call bringing them up to speed on discussion threads, who's who, the best way to approach starting late - a strategy i.e. what to bother reading and what not to.
  
• Encourage learner collaboration - helps contextualise content allowing the learners to transfer knowledge to a multiplicity of applications
  
• Be cautious with using humour, if in doubt focus on clear thinking, good grammar and unequivocal instructions.
  
• Check messages before posting for typos, or allow a few to ‘humanise’ the environment.
  
• Reread messages before posting from the perspective of a participant. Consider, how else could this message be interpreted, have I made my intent clear?
  
• Wherever possible tap into issues springing from participant’s workplace or environment, things that participants are familiar with and have some level of understanding, even expertise.
  
• Be clear and open to participants about your facilitation ‘style’ and explain how/when/if you change modes over time re why you are doing this.
  
• Encourage the interaction and problem solving skills of students by "lurking" before jumping in with a response. Be aware of your ‘timing’. Try to encourage the group to come up with some solutions first, although you may need to re focus contributions if the discussion goes completely off track.
  
• Be aware participants tend to either love or hate the use of emoticons, either the smiley face variety or the colon bracket variety.