eLearners and Facilitators

The first contact a student has with eLearning materials should be initiated by the facilitator. In the present case study, the facilitator contacted the students well before the class was scheduled to begin. This gives the students plenty of time to visit the learning platform and have an explore before the class formally begins so there is less time wasted on orientation. This contact was in the form of a forum message which generated an RSS feed to the students' email accounts. This pushing allowed the students to be notified in a medium they are often using; students would not miss a vital message.

The facilitator also helped keep the learner on-track. Since eLearning allows a facilitator to easily see when a student has not been on-line (even if they lurk in fora), an eFacilitator can very easily monitor the students' activity. If a student has not been active for a while then the facilitator can send a quick email or phone-call to the student. This not only keeps the student motivated but also allows them to feel like the facilitator actually cares about their progress in the course. This sense of care is much more important in an on-line medium since there is no face-to-face interaction to keep students motivated.

Throughout the learning experience, the facilitator should guide the students learning rather than dictate its direction. This is best done by asking pertinent questions of the students to focus their thinking on issues the facilitator feels are important. However, the facilitator should let the discussion develop naturally before attempting to guide it in this fashion otherwise students may feel stifiled and that they are not having enough input into their learning. This differs remarkably to the technique used in classroom teaching where the facilitator often has to re-invigorate the conversation to keep the learning going.

A good eFacilitator will also balance the need for individual feedback with time constraints. Often, it is not possible for a facilitator to provide individual feedback to all students - particularly on group tasks - but some feedback about the task puts it into some form of context for the students.  Whereas a class-based facilitator can provide quick, individualised feedback, the process takes much longer for an eFaciliatator. Providing combined feedback for the group activity is a happy compromise between individual feedback and no feedback at all.

The successful eLearner is, above all, self-motivated. They seek to find out new things about their world and delight in finding out new things. They also see learning as providing its own benefits. Since there is often less direct, physical contact involved in eLearning, much of the benefit a student receives will be intrinsic to that student. Although there is still a high level of social interaction involved in eLearning, what the student gets out of eLearning depends a lot more on what they put into it than does class-based learning.

The successful eLearner will also go out of their way to find extra reading. If the learner is having trouble understanding a particular topic or unit, they will use all the resources available to them in order to find the resources they require to understand the material. This means that they are open to learning from their classmates - whether it be following up on suggested readings or sharing knowledge. The successful eLearner, then, is also willing to help others learn; they realise that by helping someone else create knowledge,  their knowledge also improves. This also hints at another aspect of successful eLearners: they devote enough time to the course. Without devoting adequate time, the learner will neither be able to process the comments of class-mates nor digest the required readings. However, by devoting adequate time to the on-line course, the learner is able to take full advantage of the learning opportunities.

Berge's Aspects of eFacilitation Exemplefied

Zane Berge outlines four aspects of eFacilitation. Here are Berge's four aspects with quotes from my facilitator demonstrating each in action.

Pedagogical:

"Based on my experience of online learning and facilitation, I’m not sure I agree with the comments be objective and don’t expect too much. Being aware of the situation and needs of individual participants and open to responding to participant contributions is, to me, more subjective"

Social:

"Great to 'meet' you and welcome to Facilitating Online Learning Experiences. That's great that you are already working as a Project Coordinator developing learning packages. This course and the next one - Instructional Design for E-Learning - should stand you in good stead for what you are doing. In the meantime, take the time to enjoy your own learning. I loved the course when I did it and found it helped enormously to be on the receiving end of the learning for a change.Sing out if you need any help at any time." 

Managerial:

"I've recently updated the marking schedules for Assessments 1-3 to include more detail on the breakdown of marks for the various task components. If you have downloaded and/or printed the marking schedules, please replace them with the current versions." 

Technical:

"This is still a bit of a mystery. I've deactivated the original assessment 1 submission boxes, and set up new ones. Could you please let me know if you can now see them?"

Perhaps the most important aspect that this model of facilitation is missing is that of assessor. Although this may come under Barge's "pedagogical" role, but it seems as if this was not the intention in the original article. Of course, the article was written more for computer conferencing than eLearning. These days, most eLearning is not only carried out on-line but it also leads to the awarding of a qualification. As such, there is a strong call for facilitators who are not only experienced in grading but also versed in new assessment designs, which reflect the changing face of learning.

Similarly, I don't feel that Berge captures the role of "technologist" very well. There has been explicit discussion in the course so far over the learning tools we have been using - blogs or journals / discussion boards or wikis - with the facilitators both knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the tools and being able to succinctly explain why these tools were chosen. Berge's description of the technical role is more about using tools rather than the disposition to find out what tools are about and thinking about how they may be used in an eLearning context.

The main problem I have with Berge's classification is that the four roles are simply too broad. Although they may be useful "containers" to put discussion about eFacilitation in, their breadth makes them not particularly useful. However, the benefit of the model is not so much its use in discussing roles but rather in discussing fields of roles. That is, Berge's model provides the scaffolding on which we may hand eFacilitation roles.

Reflection on Creating a Job Description

Here follows a reflection on devising this post.

The role of eFacilitation requires much more than "traditional" learning. This is due mostly to the phenomenon that the eFacilitator is often the only person in the institution to have contact with the student. Practically, this means that an eFacilitator requires a much broader range of skills than do traditional facilitators. I found the 12 sections of the job, as outlined in the On-line Facilitation eBook, to be a useful way of beginning to think about those skills required in eFacilitation.

The post linked to above was actually my second post in the forum. My first one was simply the role titles. Said post was also the first one specifically addressing the task instructions. As such, it gave other members of the team a point from which to depart. The hardest part of any task is often the beginning - sometimes it is incredibly difficult to find the right way to begin. Posting a comprehensive, open-ended comprehension provided a scaffold on which my team-mates could hang their contributions.

Although not all my categories made it into the job description, the original post did spark some thoughts in my team-mates. Despite this, I would have like to see more discussion on these points. Indeed, only two of us really discussed the roles of an eFacilitator and even then it wasn't really that much of a "discussion" but rather postings along similar thought-lines. Perhaps I could have helped stimulate this discussion by asking more direct questions of my colleagues. That way, I feel I would have added more value to all of our learning by focusing thinking on particular aspects of the task.

eFacilitator Job Description

And here is the job description our team came up with. I'm not really sure if it is quite complete enough but this could have something to do with the small number of words we had to write it...

Purpose of the role

The purpose of this position is to facilitate high quality interaction in the e-learning environment which will enable students to apply their knowledge and to succeed in their chosen subjects through excellence in open and flexible learning delivery.

Key roles and responsibilities

• Educational - encouraging and supporting e-learners by communicating with them in their learning.
• Social – creating a safe, friendly and social learning environment by encouraging and promoting interaction through on-line discussions and activities among learners and between learners and the facilitator. “Successful facilitation requires attendance to the ‘social’ aspect of learning as well as to the ‘learning task’ (Ambrose 2001).”
• Managerial - The facilitator must be able to ensure the course is run to the standard set by the institution/standards body. Meanwhile, there are certain reporting activities that must occur such as setting the course objectives, scheduling tasks, timelines and making the necessary organisational decisions. Ensuring learners are working at their own pace, monitoring progress and managing online discussions. "At the beginning ( the ) role is 'managerial' (organizing work, agenda, deadlines, providing resources)" (Daele-D 2000a). Online Tutoring E-book Sarah Cornelius and Carol Higgison.
• Technical - The facilitator is expected to make participants comfortable with the technology. Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of online instructional design along with good computer and software skills. Have the ability to build online teams, facilitate the integration of research results with teaching material and have up to date knowledge of how tools in the learning environment work.

Person specification

• Excellent knowledge and skills of online instructional design
• Knowledge of the teaching process
• Commitment, enthusiasm and a positive attitude to online teaching
• Basic knowledge of tools students intereact with.
• It is "an advantage to have tutors directly interfacing with students on technical issues" (Cornelius & Higgison 200 p. 19)
• Demonstrated excellent communication skills -both verbal and written
• Possess a "positive attitude to online teaching" and "an ability to be innovated and experimental" (Backroad Connections Pty. Ltd 2002 p.3)
• E-facilitator should have willingness to learn the use of new technologies in the design and delivery
• Demonstrated experience in adult education learning environment is also desirable to be able to understand adult education principles  and be able to respond adequately to their demands.

Demonstrated skills and experience

• The ideal online facilitator must have knowledge of and experience with the facilitation and design of online courses. Excellent writing skills; demonstrable initiative, creativity, and flexibility; ability to work independently and effectively in groups; strong interpersonal and organisational skills.
• Experience in real world applications of their subject matter and to understand issues as well as being able to provide possible solutions to the problems learners may come across during their learning experience. Current knowledge of practices within the subject as well as being up to date with the current trends is expected.
• Having an awareness of educational theories and different teaching and learning styles and how these styles and theories might apply to the on-line learning context, is an important element.
• Excellent communication skills are required and the facilitator must be able to communicate content through interaction, while making the online experience effective, interesting and interactive.

Personal qualities

• The ideal candidate will have an ability to establish and maintain an online identity, is able to adapt to new teaching contexts, methods, audiences and roles.
• Has strong communication skills and can demonstrate a positive attitude, commitment, enthusiasm, openness, concern, flexibility and sincerity within this environment.

The Roles of an eFacilitator

The following roles of an eFacilitator were taken from p. 9 of the Online Tutoring e-Book. They are quite a detailed explanation of what I believe the job of eFacilitator entails.


Technologist

• Have knowledge of how tools in the learning environment work
• Have some knowledge of general computing OS (Windows and Mac at the very least but preferably linux also)
• Have an interest in new on-line tools and knowledge of the trends of internet communication

All these things allow for the facilitator to understand the experience of the student and allow for much smoother course work.

Manager

• Be able to schedule tasks
• Abide by institutional policies
• Deal with day-to-day issues in running a course

The facilitator must be able to ensure the course is run to the standard set by the institution/standards body. Meanwhile, there are certain reporting activities that must occur.

Co-Learner

• Be interested in learning new skills/developing new knowledges
• Be prepared to let the students take the lead - guide students on their journey rather than dictate what that journey is
• Chart out the course of learning

The facilitator is not just a teacher - their purpose is to create a template for learning which the students fill in.

Designer

• Must always aim to construct a community of practice
• Must be cognisant of theories of connective learning and applications of these theories in practice
• Must create a safe, warm learning environment

Without conscious planning, the on-line environment can quickly turn from one conducive to learning into a pandemonium-rich free-for-all.

Knowledge Expert

• Need to have both academic knowledge and experience in applying theories (Illinois Online Network 2007)
• Need to have a high level of information-literacy
• Can provide resources suited to all students, from beginners to more advanced

Although a facilitator is more of a guide, without detailed subject knowledge they will not be able to guide their students adequately.

Researcher

• A desire to contribute to the growing body of knowledge on on-line facilitation
• Be able to produce sound research outputs
• Possess knowledge of modern social-science research methods

There is a desperate need for more sound research on educational praxis. On-line facilitators are in a prime position to create new theories of learning that are applicable in praxis.

Facilitator

• Know when to be firm and when to be more flexible in guiding the discussion
• Know how to stimulate discussion by asking questions
• Judiciously provide answers to balance student frustration with student contribution

Facilitation is a balancing act. An on-line facilitator will need in-depth knowledge of the techniques of facilitation and theories of interpersonal communication and group processes.

Assessor

• Be creative in devising new forms of assessment
• Balance group assessment with individual assessment
• Be able to apply institutional assessment policies to allow students the greatest flexibility in assessment

Awarding of a grade is, unfortunately, one of the main objectives of modern study. The assessor needs to balance the "tick the box" approach with more creative strategies to ensure our students are actually learning.

Adviser/Counsellor

• eFacilitators often have the greatest contact with students so are the first port of call for students who are having difficulties
• Need to consider the "whole student" since on-line learners often have many extra-curricular activities that may be interfering with studies
• Above all, an eFacilitator must be motivated by a sense of compassion and a desire to help people fulfill their potential.

The eFacilitator is often to only person within an institution that the student has contact with. This means they are responsible for more pastoral care of the student than their face-to-face colleagues.

Tutor

• Be sensitive to the students' needs for individual tuition
• Balance responsibilities for individual assistance and group needs
• Be creative in devising activities to assist individual students

The eFacilitator must recognise that some students may require greater assistance because of the study mode employed. Yet, they need to balance this further assistance with the needs of other students.

Mentor

• Be available to guide newer eFacilitators
• Desire to build and participate in an eFacilitation Community of Practice

Compared with face-to-face teaching, it is comparatively easier for eFacilitators to mentor others. This is because many of the tools we use of on-line teaching are also useful for building Communities of Practice.

All your feedback would be greatly appreciated...