Create Collaborative Client Relationships

• Develop working partnerships.
• Design and customise applications to meet client needs.
• Manage multi-session events effectively.

Plan Appropriate Group Processes

• Select clear methods and processes.
• Prepare time and space to support group processes.

Create and Sustain a Participatory Environment

• Demonstrate effective participatory and interpersonal commun­ication skills.
• Honour and recognise diversity, ensuring inclusiveness.
• Manage group conflict.
• Evoke group creativity.

Guide Group to Appropriate and Useful Outcomes

• Guide group with clear methods and processes.
• Facilitate group self-awareness about its task.
• Guide the group to consensus and desired outcomes.

Build and Maintain Professional Knowledge

• Maintain a base of knowledge.
• Know a range of facilitation methods.
• Maintain professional standing.

Model Positive Professional Attitude

• Practice self-assessment and self-awareness.
• Act with integrity.
• Trust group potential and model neutrality.

Presentation Indicators

1. 1. Was the session clearly and engagingly presented? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all
2. 2. Was the timing and pacing appropriate for the audience? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all
3. 3. Did participants have appropriate opportunities to discuss and participate? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all
4. 4. Were activities relevant and engaging? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all
5. 5. Was there an effective use of visual aids (flipchart, PowerPoint, DVD, diagrams, etc.) employed? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all

Content Indicators

1. 6. Was the content well organised? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all
2. 7. Was the content relevant and useful? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all
3. 8. Was the material clear and appropriate for the audience? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all
4. 9. Was the material supported with helpful examples, definitions and/or data? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all

Impact Indicators

1. 10. Was a level of knowledge gained? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all
2. 11. Were anticipated results/goals achieved? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all
3. 12. Will the material be personally helpful? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all
4. 13. Was participation a worthwhile use of your time? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all
5. 14. Did the presentation offer any new, previously unknown, insights and/or knowledge? (Please circle)
   • 5 Completely
   • 4 Mostly
   • 3 Adequately
   • 2 Only sometimes
   • 1 Not at all

Preparation

1. 1. Establish clear goals and expectations at the outset. Make clear to participants exactly what you expect from them. You and your team should come to a consensus on what your basic requirements will be. If your participants will be evaluated or graded, make sure that they thoroughly understand the criteria that will be used. You may want to post a weekly checklist in your announcement of each topic or monitor participants' contributions in course statistics and privately remind them if they are not actively contributing to the discussion.
2. 2. Provide behind-the-scenes support via email. Email is a good way to respond to individual problems or to motivate people to participate without embarrassing them. You will want to be in regular email contact with your participants, either by group or individual communication. If participants send you interesting content-related comments via email, encourage them to post these thoughts to the discussion forum as well. If you receive a number of questions by email, you may want to consider posting a special discussion forum for questions or suggestions. This way everyone can benefit from answers to questions of general interest.
3. 3. Make everyone feel welcome and heard; create a comfortable environment. Respond publicly to initial introductions in a way that uses them as a springboard for discussion, connecting participants' experiences to the content and raising questions for consideration. After everyone is comfortable, responses can become more global: instead of responding to each message individually, you can post replies responding to issues raised in several messages. Encourage participants to actively join in the orientation session and to get to know one another. Show your personality so that your participants feel as if they know you. Use an informal and friendly tone in your messages. You may also want to include emoticons, or “smileys”, short sequences of letters and symbols that are used to emulate emotions and to express the message spirit.
4. 4. Foster communication between participants. Phrase your discussion contributions in ways that will encourage further responses from participants and draw connections between participants' comments. Try to avoid "over-facilitating". You don't need to answer every question and settle every point! You may want to wait a day or two before you address comments to give participants an opportunity to respond to one another. When you do post messages, try to push the discussion forward by raising additional questions.
5. 5. Model participation and discussion techniques for participants. Pay attention to the tone of the messages that you post, as you will be setting the tone. Try to be both professional and informal, establishing an environment of mutual respect and comfort while avoiding any sense of intimidation. Being inclusive and making connections between participants' comments will model this type of discussion behaviour and attitude for your participants as well.
6. 6. Keep the discussion alive; prevent stagnancy. Periodically post "acknowledgement" messages to participants' comments, even if you don't have anything elaborate to contribute on that point. A simple "interesting idea", "good example," "I agree" or a similar message can provide the online equivalent of eye contact and a nod of the head: it lets the communicator know that someone is paying attention. Often, this is also a good time to refocus the discussion by posing a new question that stems from the current conversations. Be aware of time. Participants don't tend to check the discussion board as frequently as facilitators do, so part of your role is to make sure the discussion lulls don't last too long. If you keep the discussion alive and stimulating, your participants will have an incentive to check more frequently. At a minimum, you should be reading and contributing to the discussion at least every other day, more often if possible, especially if you have an active group.
7. 7. Keep the discussion on-topic. Keep the majority of communication in the public forum, even if you find that some participants prefer to share their thoughts with you via email. Do not dilute the discussions on the discussion board with too much private one-on-one communication. Keep the discussions on track; rein in long digressions; push people forward on the topic. If comments drift off-topic, be creative. Use subtle or humorous messages, or perhaps a humorous graphic or photo, to redirect the discussion. Send personal emails if necessary.
8. 8. Guide participants through the agenda. Send out email messages to all participants to announce each new topic, introduce the next assignment and remind participants of upcoming due dates for activities. This can also be a good opportunity to tie readings, activities and discussion questions together for participants.
9. 9. Make notes of action and parking lot items. It is valuable to provide a list of action items that can be shared at any time.
10. 10. Bring closure to each topic before moving on. It is valuable to provide "we are all together" moments to segue from one workshop session or course assignment to the next. These pauses help to keep the participants united as they establish a collective understanding of what they have completed and what they are about to do. Topic summaries provide this closure in part, but a number of other types of activities can be used to provide these synergistic moments.
11. 11. Bring session to a close. It is valuable to provide a summary of the session, the decisions made, action items and who is accountable and when they have to be delivered.
12. 12. Follow-up with email. It is valuable to summarise again all the key items of the session, purpose of meeting, outcomes and actions, thanking people for their participation.

Online facilitators should think about:

• Previous sessions.
• Welcoming instructions.
• Reviewing any feedback that is available from previous versions of the course and asking questions such as:
• What were the pressure points for participants?
• Were there clear instructions on access?
• How to welcome participants into the course?
• Were sources of help and information easy to find?
• All navigation and other links (particularly external URLs) should also be checked before the course begins.

1. 1. Plan carefully and thoroughly.
   • Formative activities can include small quizzes which are clearly marked as “practice” activities and are non-threatening. Don’t skimp on the feedback; it is not just another chore when composing the quiz. “Good job”, “Well done” and “Try harder” are all equally unhelpful.
   • Online facilitators are encouraged to construct their own checklists for a course. A communication plan constructed before the course starts helps you remember what to do and when to do it.

     When	Facilitator
     Pre-prepared for session	Facilitator brief video or text introduction. About me brief video or text about the session, what to expect.
     Pre-prepared start of course	Welcome message – introduction forums. Facilitator leads with first posting and welcomes individual participants as they arrive and post. Encouraging and energetic.
     Start of session	Overview – what’s up next, where to find background information, action list, etc.; what are the deadlines etc.
     Follow-up	Provide additional context, identify aspects of the supporting documentation/data/etc. Where help is if a participant gets stuck.
     Every day	Monitor engagement – use session statistics and logs. Read discussion but don’t respond to every post (allow participant voices). Be available.
     End of session/week reminders	End of session reminder of what has happened during the week and this leads onto the next week. Remind participants of activities, deliverables, logs, etc.

2. 2. Use a model.
   • A model is a way of seeing the world. Gilly Salmon’s model is a “scaffolding” model. It helps facilitators to know and to plan what they should be doing as a course develops over time. The model shows the development of the facilitator role; first, a lot of technical support and motivation via welcoming messages is needed.
   • As the session develops, the participants become less dependent upon the online facilitator and more engaged with each other. Therefore, group work is going to be much more effective at later stages than earlier stages. Most of the “heavy lifting” will be done during stages 3 and 4.
3. 3. Use icebreakers.
   • The aim of icebreakers is to reduce anxiety and promote interactions. Getting to know people is important in reducing anxiety. You can have activities that are completely unrelated to the course material (stranded on desert islands, favourite food/colour/music, magic wands, etc.) which promote the fun element.
   • You can also relate to expectations to discover what these are and make this a group activity. In face-to-face workshops, you may have participants introduce each other; you can do this online too. If you can do some of these and relate them to the course content, I personally feel that that is a good approach. As a facilitator, you get a feel for what people expect and maybe what they already know.
4. 4. Pay attention to participant motivation.
   • In order to motivate and engage the learners, you need to know why they are attending the session. Another use for an icebreaker: Were they made to or did they volunteer? This can obviously have a tremendous effect. Give them good reasons to participate; if they are bored or unmotivated, be aware that they might be negative in their dealings with others and be prepared to email them privately. Otherwise, group work could be affected as well.
   • The course should have some good formative activities, some of which are comparatively easy. Your engaged and committed learners might feel that they are too easy, but they won’t mind too much, while your more nervous types will be encouraged by success. In some circumstances, a competitive element is useful; leader boards for formative quizzes for example.
5. 5. Use forums – make your expectations clear.

   

   • Forums can relate to models like Gilly Salmon’s too:
   • They are versatile and have many uses. Not every forum has to have a lively discussion. The purpose of the forums you place in the course should be clear: What’s expected of the learners (if anything).
   • Finally:
   • There are no really hard and fast rules about online courses and their participants; every group is different, something face-to-face facilitators already know. This doesn’t mean you can wing it though.
   • As well as taking into account the difference between teaching face-to-face and online, be careful that the online facilitation experience doesn’t get bogged down by the technology. Every activity, group, individual, blog, wiki and forum should have a clearly defined purpose and not be there just because it can be. Sessions and courses stuffed full of “just-in-case” resources and activities do not encourage and motivate learners.