Wobbly moment

In discussing online facilitation with a colleague recently, my colleague said: 'I'd rather use any response from me as a fallback rather than a default'.

This caused me a 'wobbly moment' yet again. The question of how much to respond in an online course always arises for me. I think it's particularly important on this course, because of the nature of the subject matter. It seems to me that discussions about reflection and reflective learning might require a different type of facilitation.

On this course I have tried to be an equal participant, although as one of my past posts has indicated I'm not sure how successful this has been. However, I do have the role of facilitator on this course and I interpret this to mean supporting participants in their learning with all that that entails.

So my colleague's post has made me think about the way I interact online and why.

As a facilitator, I try to be 'present' - a 'leader' - not in any hierarchical sense, but in the sense of taking responsibility.

I try to empathise. I know that some participants will have problems with feeling of isolation, exclusion, insecurity, doubt about their personal/academic abilities and so on. I know this because it's exactly how I feel myself.

So I try to be inclusive - to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to enter into dialogue, ideally with other participants as much as, if not more than with me. I try to get a sense of the 'person' behind the screen and try to make personal contact.

Once the course has got going and everyone feels confident with each other, I try not to dominate the conversation and allow participants time and space to respond to each other. There is a difficult tension here between being 'present' and not being dominant. I still don't know how much is too much when it comes to posting. I still waver over how long to wait for others to respond to a post before posting myself. I still can't judge how much silence is beneficial in an online course or when silence becomes detrimental to the learning flow and process. I take each instance as it arises and respond according to my 'gut reaction' at the time.

On most courses I try to draw participants out through the use of open questions and keep the posting of my own opinion to a minumum, although I am aware that on this course, where I have tried to be an equal participant, I have posted a lot more opinion and done a lot less questioning than I normally do. Again, I'm not sure that this has been a successul approach. I hope that even when offering opinion I have been clear that it is only opinion and no better or worse than anyone elses and that there are no right or wrong answers. This is where the role of facilitator and tutor differ. If I see myself as a tutor, then my priority is that I have something to teach. If I see myself as a facilitator, then my priority is to assist the learning process. I know that all through this blog I have been using the words tutor and facilitator interchangeably, but I do see them as different and regard myself as more of a facilitator than a tutor, although obviously there is overlap between the two. I'm not sure whether my actions bear this out.

I also try to be aware of different learning styles and that some participants will learn through 'observing' rather than actively posting. This is difficult to judge online. How do we know whether someone is 'struggling' and needing support, or simply reading, wathing and thinking. 'Waving not drowning' comes to mind.

I suppose ultimately, I hope that a learning community will develop as the course progresses in which each member of the community takes responsibility for contributing to the learning process. Although there may be a core group that drives this process, everyone has a part to play and if the course were longer I would expect the core group membership to change over time.

030309 - I don't think my opinions have changed on this. I have recently facilitated on two online courses and I still always question whether my approach has been appropriate for the context. I suppose I always will!

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