iFacilitate

This Quick Guide looks at effective online facilitation and its importance in online teaching and learning. Specifically it unpacks the various interpretations of 'facilitation', the impact of online mediums on teacher and student roles, facilitation strategies, and emerging models and theories. The focus of this guide is on practical application and strategies associated with the facilitation of student learning. This guide will be of relevance principally to teachers and learning support staff delivering courses or supporting students online, and designers of online teaching programs.

Blogs Blogs are a very underutilized writing space. Blogs share many characteristics with journals and thus can capture snapshots of what learners are thinking, and when; plus they often can also capture the sources of some of their thinking. Blogs help learners understand the growth cycle of learning new concepts and how and why they think the way they do. Here are some ideas on how blogs, both personal and class, might be used. · Personal commentary and self-reflection · Capturing thought processes and generating new ideas · Assist learners in finding their “voice” · Places for collegial commenting and suggestion · Making thinking visible: analysis, synthesis, application