Facilitator Training Manual

By Claudette Ragland

Professor Gregory Jackson

Cur 532

Audience

• New York City Department of Education Teacher Facilitators, Literacy Coaches, Professional Development Trainers and Unit Teachers.

Overview

• This 3 day course is designed to empower you to become effective distance learning facilitators.

Unit 1 Day1

• Part I – Vital Information in the Facilitator Training

• Audience

• Goals

• Objectives

• Assessments

Audience

• The audience for Distance Learner Facilitator Training are New York City Department of Education employees that consist of Teachers, Trainers, Professional Development Facilitators, and Coaches. These selected individuals are certified elementary and non elementary school teachers that have expressed an interest in distance learning facilitation.

Audience

• The facilitators all have difference skill levels and years of experience but no online facilitation experience.

Goals Unit 1

• Key skills needed to become an effective facilitator:

• Visibility

• Communication

• Organization

Visibility

• An effective online facilitators establish a presence in their online environment by designing instruction and giving direct instructions to your audience.

Communication

• An effective online facilitator communicates with students frequently, provides feedback, and communicates well using technology. (Palloff&Pratt)

•

Organization

• Organization is essential to good facilitation. In an distance learning environment time management is crucial.

Goals of Facilitation Program

• Program Goals:

• Participants will learn how to deliver instruction in a distance learning environment.

• Participants will be able to create a positive classroom presence

• Participants will be able to manage an online classroom

• Participants will be able to navigate technologies used in online learning environment.

• Participants will understand how adults learn

• Participants will be able to design instruction

• Participants will be able to engage the learners

• Participants will understand the importance of cultural sensitivity

• Participants will be able to assess for student learning.

Objectives of Facilitation Program

• By the end of the three day training facilitators will be able to:

• Explain the importance of establishing a presence in a distance learning environment.

• Demostrate effective engagement of learners.

• Explain and give examples of how to create a learning community that fosters learning

• Design effective instruction

• Effectively utilize technological software designed for program.

• Identify skills needed to be an effective facilitator.

•  

Summative Assessment

• By the end of the three day training participants will be able to pass a multiple choice assessment with a minimum score of 80%.

• Assessment will assess participants ability to facilitate effectively.

Course Evaluation

At the end of the 3 day training participants will take a course evaluation survey to rate the effectiveness of the facilitation program.

Facilitator Skills and instructional materials Day 2

• Communication

• Create an Active Learning Environment

• Engage the Learner

• Encourage Collaboration

• Tie Course into Real Life Situations

• Set Clear Rules and Expectations

• Be a Guide instead of a Instructor

• Give and Accept Feedback

Communication

• An effective online facilitator communicates with students frequently, provides substansive feedback, and communicates well using technology.

• Palloff & Pratt (2009)

Active Learning Environment

• An effective facilitator will make the online learning environment relaxing and engaging.

Set Clear Rules and Expectations

• One of the key prerequisites for becoming an online facilitator is setting rules and goals beforehand, so that you can structure the eLearning course to achieve the desired outcome. You should also set expectations, in order to provide the learners with a clear sense of what they will be receiving from the eLearning course. This will help everything and everyone to stay on track and will allow you to effectively facilitate your learners’ eLearning experience.

• http://elearningindustry.com/from-instructor-to-effective-online-facilitator

Collaboration

• Group Work: Groups will problem solve and create conversation that evoke learning. It’s good to encourage learners to become facilitators of the group.

• Discussion Boards: Introductions and group feedback and discussions on topics at hand.

• Social Cafés: A place to talk about off topic discussions.

Phases of Development

• According to Palloff and Pratt facilitators go through five phases of development.

• Visitor

• Novice

• Apprentice

• Insider

• Master

Vistor

• A facilitator that has toyed with the idea of integrating technology into the class by posting assignments on line.

Novice

• A facilitator who has never taught an online course and have maybe posted a syllabus and have used online technologies to supplement their traditional teaching. Palloff & Pratt(2009)

Apprentice

• Facilitators that have taught a corse or two online. Apprentice facilitators are developing an understanding of online instruction.

Insider

• Taught two or more semesters online these facilitators feel comfortable teaching in an online environment.

Master

• These facilitators have taught several online courses and have designed courses for instruction. The have also mastered the technology associated with distance learning.

Theories of Distance Learning

• Transactional Distance

• Multimodality

• Intrinsic Motivation

• Digital Media

Transactional Distance

• Transactional distance involves a set of 3 varibles that operate in relation to the degree of transactional distance between the teachers and learners.(dialogue, program structure, and autonomy)

Haythornthwaite &Andrews (2011)

Multimodality

• Multiple delivery methods of instruction

Intrinsic Motivation

• Success in distance learning requires intrinsic motivation.

Digital Media

• Computers

• Hand held devices

• Social Networking

• Many different forms of media are used to deliver online instruction

Theories for Engaging Distance Learners

• Establish a presence

• Collaboration

• Create instruction around real world situations

Management and Technology Tools Unit 3 Day 3

• Mentoring Programs for Faculty

• Management and Evaluation Programs

• Learning platform (LMS/CMS) used by the distance learning faculty for facilitating their classes

Faculty Development

• Teacher as a learner: Information gathering stage, instructors are seeking to develop the skills they need in order to perform instructional task using technology.

• Teacher as an adopter: Experimental stage in which instructors try out different forms of technology and share their experiences with focus on task management.

• Teacher as a co-learner: A clear relationship between technology and the delivery of curriculum is formed at this stage.

Faculty Development con’t

• Teacher as a reaffirmer or rejector: Awareness of learning outcomes and determining the impact of various technological approaches on student learning.

• Teacher as a leader: Experienced instructors are encouraged to expand their roles to become active researchers and teach new members.

• Palloff & Pratt (2010)

Mentoring ProgramsProviding Visions for Technology Use

Breaking Down Hierarchical Structure

Establishing Open Dialogue and Collaborative Relationships

Mentoring

Mentoring Con’t

Colleague Personal Support

Mentoring

Faculty Evaluation and Management

• Clear Expectations

• Peer Evaluation

• Connection to the institution

• Managing Faculty

Faculty Evaluatio

n

Evaluation

Mentoring

Programs

Faculty Evaluation Online Teacher

Mentor Program Format

Mentor Training

Create Mentor Directory

Faculty Learning Community

Emerges

One to One Mentoring

Mentors train novice and beginner faculty

Peer Mentoring Group

LMS/CMS Learning Platform

• LMS: Commonly used in corporate training and higher education settings, learning management systems are software platforms that store and deliver training content and then track participation in training.

• CMS: Content management systems create the framework in which content is stored and displayed on a website. These systems manage various content forms, including files, images, electronic documents, audio files, and many more.

Why Use LMS

• LMS allows companies to assign training to their employees, track their participation, and produce documentation of employee training activity and results. LMS enables companies to create different tracks of training courses to deliver to different groups of employees in order to fulfill their specific training objectives—creating a customized learning program for each employee, as needed. In addition to delivering and tracking online training courses, many LMS enable training managers to keep track of employees’ participation in other types of training programs, such as in-person classes. Dubowy (2013)

Course Technology

• Audio: Such as NPR, and Audioboom application.

• Video: Youtube and other video sites

• Pintrest

• Livetext

• Discussion Boards

• Chat rooms

Issues and Classroom Management Day 3

• Technology for Student Collaboration

• Different Distant Learners

• Difference Between Sychronous vs. Asynchronous Facilitation

• Technology Issues and Resolutions

• Classroom Management Issues and Resolutions

Technologies Used for Student Collaboration

• Pintrest

• Livetext

• Video sharing

• Blogs

• Facetime

• Chat rooms

Asynchronous vs. Synchronous

• Asynchronous:

• Reflect on complex issues

• Students have more time to reflect because the sender does not expect an immediate answer

• Emails, Discussions, and Blogs

• Students expected to reflect individually on course topics and maintain a blog

• Students expected to share reflection regarding course topics.

Asynchronous vs. Synchronous con’t

• Synchronous:

• Discuss less complex issues

• Getting aquainted

• Planning Task

• Student becomes more committed and motivasted because immediate response is expected

• Synchronous means chatting, video conferences, instant messaging and face to face meetings.

Technology Issues and Resolutions

• Inability to download text Tech Support

• Virus Tech Support

• Software not compatible Tech Support

Classroom Management

• Clear rules and expectations

• Establish classroom Presence

• Give timely feedback

Different Learners

• Cultural Differences

• Age and gender differences

• Life experiences

References

• Hornthwaite, C., & Andrews, R. (2011). E-learning theory and practice. Thousand Oaks California: SAGE.

• Palloff, R., & Pratt, K. (2010). The excellent online instructor. San Francisco California: Jossey Bass.

• http://elearningindustry.com/from-instructor-to-effective-online-facilitator

• https://www.opensesame.com/blog/lms-vs-lcms-vs-cmschanging-one-letter-makes-big-difference

• https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/eqm0848.pdf