The next step in our framework begins the facilitation unit. We will discuss facilitation strategies. The unit learning outcome is: I can facilitate my blended course. The mastery challenges are now facilitation challenges. As always, formative evaluation will be conducted to help you thoroughly think through your facilitation decisions.

Chapter Learning Outcome: I can explain how instructor facilitation influences student learning.

Sub-section outcomes:

• I can distinguish between online facilitation and design. (Section 7.1)
• I can articulate how online course design affects an instructor’s ability to facilitate learning. (Section 7.2)
• I can explain why developing online facilitation skills is important. (Section 7.3)

7.0 Introduction

By definition, to facilitate something is to make it easier. In the context of a discussion, a facilitator would help the discussion run more smoothly and effectively. Similarly, in the context of blended and online courses, the goal of facilitating is to help your learners have a smoother experience when learning the content, participating in activities, and interacting with others. All of which should, hopefully, have a positive effect on learner engagement and learning outcomes.  

Many blended and online courses are facilitated by one person—the course instructor. This instructor may be the same person who designed and created the course, or it could be another faculty member or adjunct instructor who was tasked with teaching the course. And while some instructors may be facilitating on their own, others may have teaching assistants or other support. Instructors may also teach learners to be effective facilitators in online discussions and teamwork. In any of these scenarios, the instructor is the main facilitator of the course. 

Facilitating a course typically involves a variety of roles, such as guiding learners through the learning process, clarifying instructions, helping learners utilize technology, and promoting discussions and interactions with and between learners. 

The course facilitator may have a variety of responsibilities within these roles, such as:

• Creating a course navigation video
• Guiding discussions
• Making regular announcements
• Answering learners’ questions
• Clarifying assignment instructions
• Supporting group interactions
• Establishing and enforcing course policies
• Giving personalized feedback on learner assignments
• Encouraging and acknowledging learner contributions

See Figure 7-1 for some verbs describing what facilitators do.

We need to begin with the Facilitation Competency Self-Assessment.

7.1 Facilitation vs. Design

Learning Outcome: I can distinguish between online facilitation and design.

In Chapter 1, we related the design of a course to the design of a building. The blueprint of a course, like the blueprint of a building, shows how each of the elements will work together, with each element designed for a particular purpose. After a course has been designed, facilitation is like a building being used for the purposes it was designed for. Now that the course (or “building”) has been developed, how are you going to help your learners use what has been created to maximize their learning?

Consider an asynchronous discussion. The course designer was careful when designing the prompt: choosing words that would enable evaluative and divergent thinking and setting guidelines on the structure, content, flow and timing of responses (see Chapter 5). 

Now envision two instructors simultaneously teaching this course as described in Table 7-1. 

Table 7-1. Two contrasting examples of facilitating online discussion  

While the design of the activity is consistent across each, the methods the instructors use to facilitate diverge significantly. Are these instructors facilitating this activity in a way that fulfills the purpose it was designed for? Maybe! It depends on the purpose of the assignment.

Another example to compare design and facilitation is a lecture. In this scenario, an instructor may have designed the slide deck by adding information and images, organizing the content, and creating supporting activities. The facilitation of the lecture encompasses all the dynamics during the actual presentation, which may include interacting with learners, noticing when they’re not engaged, answering questions, reviewing ideas, and more. Consider two contrasting examples in Table 7-2 of facilitating during a lecture.

Table 7-2. Two contrasting examples of facilitating during a class lecture 

Similarly, an instructor might create a lesson plan, which is a specific design for a class session and an outline for what they hope they will do to facilitate. However, when they implement the lesson, there may be moments where learners need support or encouragement that were not already planned for in the design.

While an instructor can plan facilitation strategies for their course and activities, often facilitation is spontaneous and unscripted. In many cases, the instructor is reacting to a set of forces and relationships that can’t be predicted ahead of time.

7.2 Design Influencing Facilitation

Learning Outcome: I can articulate how online course design affects an instructor’s ability to facilitate learning.

In some cases, there may not be a clear separation between the design of a course or activity and the facilitation of the course or activity, because the two are ultimately intertwined. Usually, the design of a course or an activity creates the structure in which facilitation occurs. In other words, the design shapes the facilitation needs.

Consider our asynchronous discussion example from section 7-1. The course designer specifically created the prompt and instructions keeping in mind prompt types, structure, content, flow, and timing (see Chapter 5). Table 7-3 below shows how each may affect the facilitation needs.

Table 7-3. Asynchronous discussion design scenarios and corresponding facilitation strategies 

7.3 Why Online Facilitation Matters

Learning Outcome: I can explain why developing online facilitation skills is important.

Imagine a face-to-face classroom with 30 learners. The learners have done their pre-class readings and assignments, and now the instructor wants them to discuss what they’ve learned before moving on to the next topic. The instructor writes a prompt on the whiteboard and then proceeds to leave the classroom. How would the learners react? How would they interact with each other? Would they achieve the intended learning outcome?

This scenario would be an example of design without instructor facilitation. The prompt was created and provided to the learners, but the learners don’t have anyone to support their discussion, helping move it along when it gets stuck, connecting ideas, or answering questions. This very thing happens often in online discussions where the prompt is made available to the learners but the instructor or main facilitator doesn’t engage in the discussion, leaving learners to discuss amongst themselves with very little guidance, sometimes as little as, “Answer the prompt and then respond to two peers.”

A discussion is just one activity. What would an entire course look like as a design without facilitation? Learners’ questions would go unanswered. Nobody would provide feedback on learner work. There would be no announcements, emails, or direct messages. The learners wouldn’t interact with the instructor and they would likely be disengaged with the material. There would be nobody to notice when a learner begins to disengage and nobody trying to figure out how to help a learner stay engaged.

For a course to run smoothly, the instructor (and TAs or other supporting facilitators) will be utilizing facilitation skills in some form or another. In the upcoming chapters, we will discuss some of these facilitation skills in various blended teaching contexts. It is important to note that different skills are necessary for in-person and online facilitation.

One large difference is the technological skills necessary to facilitate in online contexts. For in-person classes, an instructor does not necessarily need to use technology to facilitate interactions between learners or between them and the learners. In the online space, they will need some technical skills to facilitate, whether it be sharing their screen in a conferencing tool, organizing learners into groups, or using communication tools to answer questions or send announcements.

If you are teaching in a blended context, you will need to be able to facilitate both in-person and online activities effectively. These skills will help you foster learner participation, enhance learner engagement, create a sense of community, and continuously improve your teaching practices.

For instructional designers, developing online facilitation skills is useful because it can help you better design with facilitation in mind. You can better understand how your designs might be used and help guide instructors with new facilitation ideas.

Conclusion

In this chapter, we introduced facilitation and what it means in the context of blended teaching. You learned the difference between facilitation and design and how the design can affect facilitation. And lastly, you learned why online facilitation skills are important, whether you are an instructional designer or an instructor. To help guide your facilitation plan, please answer the following reflection questions in your course checklist.

Resources

What Online Facilitators Do by Tony Carr

Downing, Pittaway, and Osborne, 2014