KWL Table - Online Facilitation Models

8/3/2019 KWL Table - Online Facilitation Models

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ONLINE FACILITATION MODELS

What I Know What I Want to Know What I Learned

Five popular online facilitation models are

Gilly Salmon, Zane Berge, Andrew Feenberg& Cindy Xin, and Ed Hootstein

Facilitation is the act of managing the

communication of others online.

Online facilitation is the act of managing the

learners and learning through an online

medium

This managing is done by a tutor teacher

although this online moderation can be a

student task as well.

Facilitation is a pedagogical tool as it applies

to student centered approaches to teaching asopposed to teacher-driven approaches with

the teacher moving from one of expert to

facilitator.

Online teaching has special challenges.

Teacher and student usually have not met one

another, the nature of the communication is

limited and void of social cues, and there are

challenges on keeping track of student

learning when studying remotely.

Are there any special talents required in

online facilitation?

The ultimate goals of effective design of

online teaching programs from a teaching

perspective should be to facilitate learning,

and "meaning making" and to meet the

academic, social and pragmatic needs of learners. Effective online facilitation should

engage, guide and motivate learners, andprovide a safe and conducive environment for

learning and communication exchange for all

learners regardless of their prior experienceand predisposition or otherwise towards

online learning technologies.

What is the role of the facilitator?

There is reasonable consensus within the

literature about the changing and challenging

role of the teacher in online learning. The

articles give good coverage on the collective

views, categorising skills and attributes into

three main areas - technical skills, facilitationskills, and managerial skills.

What are some of the facilitation skillsmentioned in the literature?

Facilitation skills include:engaging the learnerin the learning process, particularly at the

beginning; appropriate questioning, listening

and feedback skills; the ability to providedirection and support to learners; skills in

managing online discussionability to build

online teams; a capacity for relationshipbuilding; motivational skills.

What are the differences in skills needed inonline facilitation as opposed to conventional

teaching?

Whilst many of the facilitation tasks appearvery similar to those required in face-to-face

teaching, in an online setting some are quite



unique. For example it requires special skills

by the facilitator to progress conversationsfrom trivial surface level discussion and

social exchange to deeper level engagement.

These are skills that can be learnt.

What are some of the challenges of onlinefacilitation?

Challenges: Designing the right mix of online

and off-line activities (referred to by some as'blended learning'); Keeping tabs on

individual students' progress; Catering fordifferent learning preferences and learner

needs; Adopting student-centred approaches,

and learning to become a 'guide' or'facilitator'; Dealing with the pragmatics of

teaching online - e.g. administrative and

support requirements, and issues of time;Dealing with technical issues.

What are some of the challenges of online

communication?

Avoiding the dangers of misinterpretation of text (and assisting students to do the same),

Dealing with silences (the dread of all online

moderators) and getting students to activelyparticipate; Finding the right voice (i.e.

techniques for communicating and respondingto achieve particular outcomes); Finding the

optimal balance between private email and

public discussion. Standing back, and

allowing students to discover the power andpotential of the medium for self and group

learning and not purposely or inadvertently

dominating or stifling discussion.

What are some techniques for assisting

student learning?

Students need to be encouraged to take

responsibility for themselves - and they don't

all take to this readily, or without anguish.Articulation of reasoning, knowledge, or

problem solving processes - assist participants

to become more aware of their own thinkingand reasoning and assists them to inquire into

others' thinking and reasoning. Successful

facilitation requires attendance to the 'social'aspect of learning as well as to the 'learning

task'.

What are some ways to promoter effective

dialogue identified in the articles?

A mix of probes and supportive comments

helps to extend conversations. Deeper level

engagement can be encouraged by use of carefully considered moderating techniques.

Likewise, degeneration of meaningful

dialogue into less purposeful discussion canbe controlled through moderator/mentor

interventions. Online engagement to a degree

has to be engineered. That is, it needs to be

part of an intended design. For example you

cannot expect students to engage in

meaningful discussion on a particular topic if each are at different stages in the learning

program. Also, group work and ongoing

dialogue are best maintained if there is a

common goal or purpose. Critiques work best

when interspersed with supportive comments.

The focus needs to be very much on thepositives. Critiques that address specific

features of a participant's request for feedback are taken seriously. The importance of

providing a safe environment for participation

in online communications and activities.

Students will not engage fully unless the



environment is non-threatening and they feel

it is safe to do so.

What are some of the pragmatics for teachingonline?

Teacher workload in responding to individual

students online is an often quoted concern.

"Co-construction of meaning" both in face-to-face classes and online is one way of dealing

with this and breaking away from the student-

teacher dependency model i.e. encouragingcollaborative work and student-student or

group discussion. Students often report being

overwhelmed by messages. Again,collaborative work and smaller group

discussions can be a way of breaking

communication down to more manageable

dialogue. Summarising and weaving

conversations (facilitation techniques that can

be learnt by facilitators) also keeps studentsfocussed and assists in making the

communications more manageable. Group

work and group discussions can alleviate

some of the problems of access when students

are not able to connect regularly as a smaller

group and collaborative engagements can bemore accommodating and self-supporting.

What are some of the best ways for teachersto prepare to teach online?

The best way for teachers to learn how to bean effective online facilitator is for them to

experience the process first-hand - undertake

an online course themselves and experiencewhat it's like from a student perspective.

Whilst teacher knowledge and skills are

important, positive attitudes are even more

critical for successful online teaching. This

may require convincing teachers of the

benefits and need for online teaching in thefirst instance, and providing a supportive

framework. Professional development

activities, when preparing staff for online

facilitation, need to incorporate activities that

support the social and collaborative learning

elements of learning, as identified in asubstantial body of the literature.

What has each model achieved? What the

similarities?

Each model presents a different way of conceptualising the learning and facilitation

interactions and provides useful techniques,

and each has made a significant contributionto the research fields of online learning and

computer-mediated communication.

In a nutshell, what is Salmon's model?

Salmon's fives stages are Stage 1: Access andmotivation. Stage 2: Socialization. Stage 3:

Information Exchange. Stage 4: Knowledge

Construction. Stage 5: Development. Each

stage calls for different e-moderating skills

requiring participants to master certaintechnical skills and steps learners through a

logical process of induction before deeperlevel interactions occur. Students learn

through participation and engagement.

Motivation is the key, and so is the provision

of a conducive structure and environment.

In a nutshell, what is Hootstein's model?

Hootstein proposes a model in which the e-

learning facilitator or moderator "wears 'four

pairs of shoes' - acting as instructor, socialdirector, program manager, and technical

assistant". In the instructor role the instructor

guides the learning in a problem-centred



learning environment, offering insights and

assisting learners. As a social director theycreate and foster a collaborative environment.

A program manager directs the agenda. And

as a technical director they "assist students tobecome comfortable with systems and

software and prepare learners to resolve ...

technical difficulties that may occur".

In a nutshell, what is Zane Berge's model?

Zane Berge discusses the instructor’s role in

computer-mediated communication with a

particular focus on computer conferencingand providing a rich environment for

interpersonal interaction. Berge makes

recommendations for online facilitators in

four distinct aspects of online communication:

Pedagogical-Social-Managerial-Technical. He

emphasizes that each online learningexperience is different, and the instructor, as

facilitator, needs to be able to adapt to work

effectively and to ensure that everyone is

learning through the process. There will be

challenges for both instructor and students,

but a skilled facilitator will help students learnby clearly articulating the goals and

objectives of the online communications andby promoting two-way communication

between all participants in a congenial,

trusting environment.

In a nutshell, what is Feenberg and Xin's

model?

Feenberg and Xin indicate that the first step in

effective online facilitation is agreeing on a

communication model, and then ensuring all

participants work within that model by actingas a “chairperson,” reassuring participants and

generally modelling good practice. Keepingparticipants motivated is another challenge

once the online communications model is

established, but a skilled facilitator can keep

the online community viral, with participants

looking forward to coming back to the

discussions day-after-day. Feenberg and Xindescribe a list of 10 online communicative

functions and divide those functions into three

groups: contextualizing functions, monitoringfunctions, and meta functions. Within this set

of functions, they mention the process of

“weaving,” which involves the facilitator

finding areas of agreement within the

discussions and gluing those together for the

participants. Feenberg offers acommunication-theoretic approach to

facilitation emphasizing the differencesbetween online and face-to-face activities.

This approach highlights the specific

communicative activities belonging to theonline facilitating role. These can be

distinguished for analytic purposes from other

activities of facilitators such as the socialmanagement of personal relationships in the

group, technical support for participants with

difficulties, and pedagogical practices such asasking questions and explaining concepts.

Focusing on these communicative differences

is helpful in gaining a fuller understanding of the online setting and the special demands it

makes on facilitators.

In researching other models, are there others

that also have achieved success in onlinefacilitation? Yes



If so, what are they?

Collison, Elbaum, Haavind and Tinker'smodel is based on techniques used by the

moderator to guide and facilitate the learning.

It is premised on the view that appropriatecommunication interventions by the

moderator can move students forward and

facilitate (but should not lead) their

understandings. Paulsen maintains thatmoderators should identify their preferred

pedagogical style, based on their

philosophical orientation, their chosen

moderator roles, and their preferred

facilitation techniques. Moderator roles can attimes vary. Facilitation functions are

classified under headings of organizational,

social and intellectual facilitation.

Has one model shown to have better resultsthan the other models?

The research is silent about this. It appears

that all models work and the best model

depends on the curriculum, the organization

structure, the strengths and interests of the

instructor. So while Salmon's model make

work in one teaching environment, it may notbe so effective in another.

KWL Table - Online Facilitation Models

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