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I love this publication on how to facilitate a discussion board. It is easy to read and just has a TON of tidbits on how do run a good discussion board in your online class. I refer to it often. It is a little old, so as I recall, there might be a few links within the document that are broken, but there is a lot of content, so you won't miss it probably.

Thanks for sharing this Christina, Working on facilitating a discussion next week and I found it helpful.

This is a great article on Edutopia. It contains good practical ideas on how to use an online course's discussion forum.

Best practices, strategies and tips for successfully facilitating online discussion boards.

This is a basic primer introducing the facilitator to online teaching. I found it helpful. Also, the supplemental resources at the end are fairly good.

Stories for Change is an online meeting place for community digital storytelling facilitators and advocates. Learn more about how we're using this unique medium for social change and join the network.

Abstract: As more and more instructors enter the world of online teaching and learning, a body of knowledge is emerging around the challenge of facilitating online interaction and fostering online collaboration. This paper draws from the literature on asynchronous learning and the authors' own experiences with online discussion and collaborative online projects. We identify a variety of techniques for focusing student dialogue, fostering an online learning community, and promoting successful collaboration. Instructors who are teaching wholly online courses or simply integrating online components into face-to-face classes will benefit from the observations and discussion.

Whoo Hoo! I made it in. I feel like I belong to something! All kidding aside, this list describes the characteristics we need to be successful online learners and what qualities our students need to remain successful in our classes. Like the facilitator, the online student possesses unique qualities. The online students of today consist primarily of working people who are trying to better their opportunities. This however is changing, as more and more young and older people become aware of the online model.

One of the most frequently asked questions from veteran and novice online faculty alike is, "How many weekly discussion posts should I contribute?" The reality is, there is an intricate balancing act to achieve the coveted "guide on the side" role in discussion forum facilitation.

Greetings all! I choose this url because I had to many windows open to do anything else. I have this all together now, I think. My correct blog name is rmichellewalton.wordpress.com I am now seeing how important technology is to education. This has truly been a teachable moment for me. As I become more and more familiar with technology, I will begin to gradually incorporate it into my classes. Twitter for Academia has opened my eyes to another way to facilitate the educational process. This is a great article. Here's the url. http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/

A paper introduces a conception of discussion forums as student centred peer e-learning environments. The proffered conception positions the student as expert/facilitator at the centre of the learning event and the instructor, one step removed from the process, as overseer of the dialogue.

Relevant to this week's topic, this short article underlines the usefulness of Twitter in facilitating out-of-classroom interest.

tools and constructivism

Love that the "practical descriptions of constructivist learning" listed in the article "[C]onstructivist learning should engage students in meaningful learning and ... the critical features are that the learning should be ... * Active and manipulative, engaging students in interactions and explorations with learning materials and provid[ing] opportunities for them to observe the results of their manipulations * Constructive and reflective, enabling students to integrate new ideas with prior knowledge to make meaning and enable learning through reflection * Intentional, providing opportunities for students to articulate their learning goals and monitor their progress in achieving them * Authentic, challenging and real-world (or simulated), facilitating better understanding and transfer of learning to new situations * Cooperative, collaborative, and conversational, providing students with opportunities to interact with each other to clarify and share ideas, to seek assistance, to negotiate problems, and discuss solutions."

From this article: Presence is the most important best practice for an online course (Boettcher & Conrad, 2010, p. 53) Research has shown that an important component in students 'performance in and satisfaction with their online course is the active participation of the instructor within their course (Picciano, 2002; Rovai, 2002; Swan & Shih, 2005). ***Because online presence is such a pivotal part of our role as facilitators, social media certainly assists us in actively participating in each course.

This article explains how synchronous communication techniques can effectively work to make graduate courses more relevant. It can also be used for the same purposes in an undergraduate course.

The purpose of Bloom's Digital Taxonomy is to inform instructors of how to use technology and digital tools to facilitate student learning experiences and outcomes.

This article addresses the essentials for F2F and online teaching and learning--presence and community. Some interesting comments were made about facilitator presence in an online course.