Presentation

Online Facilitation Workshop: The Heartbeat of Online Groups

Nancy White, Full Circle Associates, USA and Tony Carr, Multimedia Education Group, University of Cape Town

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Resources for The Online Facilitation Workshop

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Starters for Day 1

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Starters for Day 2

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Starters for Day 3

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Starters for Day 4

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Starters for Day 5

This workshop draws on the experience of the facilitators as participants and facilitators in online courses, communities and conferences. The workshop is based on a five-week online facilitation workshop by Nancy White which has been running successfully since 1999 (http://www.fullcirc.com/ws/onfaccourse.htm).

We use the analogy of the heartbeat in the sense that when an athlete first begins training, her/his heart beats fast when exercising. As they increase their capacity, the heart beat slows to a steadier pace for the same activity. Similarly online groups initially aren't used to the environment and each other so things feel strange. Miscommunication and disconnection can easily happen. Our role as facilitators is to strengthen the heartbeat of the online group and create an environment for effective learning and collaboration.

Objectives are to grow Southern African capacity in facilitating both online and blended learning conversations, and to facilitate a community of practice experience for Southern African online facilitators.

The workshop will take place over one week, with a maximum of 40 participants.

Process:
Day 1: What is the heartbeat of an online group?
Day 2: Five ways to support the heartbeat of online groups.
Day 3: How to keep electronic communication warm and human.
Day 4: How to blend online and face to face facilitation.
Day 5: How to continue learning: resources and community of practice.

Each day will start with a 3-4 paragraph introduction, one resource and a provocative question. Learning will be through online discussion. This workshop will make use of synchronous and asynchronous interaction. Participants should plan on logging in every day.