Facilitating Online 2009

I am very pleased to be co-facilitating the Facilitating Online course with Leigh Blackall. If you want to join up either as a formal or informal student, it's not too late to enroll - have a look at the course details and get in touch with me.

I did this course as a student a few years ago and it had a profound effect on my life as an online educator and member of the international midwifery community. It got me thinking about how I communicate and facilitate online, and more generally about who and what I am online. Here are some of my reflections from the course.

What I want to achieve as course facilitator
The most important aspect of being course facilitator is meeting new people, re-connecting with people I already know and learning from each other. What always excites me about doing a free online course such as this is the opportunity to meet and connect with people I would otherwise never know about; people who work in different sectors and even different countries. I am still in contact with people I met on the 'connectivism' course that ran this time last year and they have become very important people in my personal learning network.

Framework for facilitation
The other things that I am going to enjoy is different perspectives and opinions about online facilitation, being a part of other people's learning and continuing my learning about the topic. For instance, I have already been challenged to think about what my framework for facilitation is. I am not sure I have a structured framework - I just get on and 'do it' - so maybe it is time I started to think about that in more detail.

My objectives
Here are my other aims or objectives for this course:

• continue to develop my facilitation skills
• continue to develop my experience of eLearning, especially in a non-midwifery education context
• consider how I can apply my experience in this course into the midwifery context, especially as I start to think about how/if/why to facilitate the 24 hour virtual event for International Day of the Midwife in 2010.

Do you have a framework for facilitation or 'rules' you follow when you are involved in online communication?


Image: With Leigh Backall http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahmstewart/3389084901