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This website is designed for practitioners that want to develop online environments to build and sustain new audiences by using facilitation techniques that affect learning in these informal spaces. Below you'll find different tools that we believe can help you successfully facilitate an online environment.

Good communication from the facilitator to the group and between group members is essential in online learning in order for the group to bond and survive. Pauleen & Yoong (2001) studied how facilitators of virtual teams were able to build and maintain these relationships. They found that prompt communication was key stating "The facilitators in this study have clear expectations that e-mail, as well as other communication messages such as voice-mail, will be replied to in a prompt manner. They believe that a lack of timeliness can lead to poor communication, the creation of ill will, and an undermining of relationships" (p. 16).

I'm sharing this slideshow from a presentation I gave last year on Facilitating Metacognition in Asynchronous Online Discussions because 1) the topic is relevant to our discussion this week, and 2) SlideShare is one of our Mashup options in Blackboard. I tested it this week and it shows up well, so wanted to demonstrate for any faculty interested. The analytics are a nice additional feature. FYI for those experimenting with social media ideas with your learners, I have also embedded SlideShare links into Tweets, and was pleasantly surprised to discover that you can view an entire slideshow in a tweet.

Because the early planning stages of online instruction are crucial, Diane Chapman and Todd Nicolet propose a 'project approach' to course Development: a formal, team-based operation that makes use of consistent standards, trackable processes, standardized tools, and structured communication to facilitate technology initiatives of all sizes. This appears to facilitate scaling and the design and development of online instruction while maintaining the quality and integrity of the courses. Course design and development become more manageable when they are translated into repeatable processes and easy-to-apply tools.

This is very similar to Strategy 6: Apply Project Planning and Management Methods to Course Development in last weeks reading, "Effective Workload Management Strategies for the Online Environment".

An interesting idea: student collaboration to lead and facilitate online discussions. This study says the student leaders elicited meaningful dialogue, high levels of participation and quality conversation.

Here are some tips and tools for implementing universal design into online and blended courses.

faculty development specialists must pay close attention to the aspects of course development that are critical to the success of student learners. The likelihood of success is greatly increased when instructional design is integrated with the course's delivery tool. At ISU such integration is facilitated through the use ofWebCT, the course management system (CMS) supported by the university. Does Emory have such a tool?

M4 Slides for live session

Leah, Thank you for this - it was a lot to absorb in the hour-long session and this will make it easier.

This study sets out criteria--pluses and pitfalls--to judge the effectiveness of online collaborative learning. And its conclusion summarizes with good advice: don't be afraid to overhaul and seek new methods if you find the collaboration isn't working.

This article looks at how Chickering and Gamson's Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (1987) can be applied to the online classroom.