Facilitation: The Secret to Live Sessions

There's something about education that always deals with facilitation, the ability for a leader or group to achieve its objectives. 

Most educators look at facilitation and proceed forward with their own ideas of leading a classroom or a group.  No one stopped, thought, and taught in a way that adjusted to the online world.  This is where e-learning comes into play. 

To be quite honest, you are going to be using facilitation a lot because your students rely on you to make sure that the class is organized. A lot of students are going to need help engaging with the class, understanding the information, and interacting with their fellow peers. Because of this, it's going to be important for you to stay aware of how your students are reacting.

I am going to give you two of my biggest tips on how to best facilitate your courses.  I’ve learned these throughout the years and they are going to help you contribute effectively to your students as well as create relationships and have engaging conversations.  

Just remember the definition of facilitation: to guide everyone to the mutually determined and desired outcome. The goal is to create a community of people working together to learn information.

Strategy #1:  Engage with your students

Why do I say facilitation is #1? Because it is something that you have to do on a regular basis. 

When we engage with our students, we help them understand the material while creating relationships and transferring information.  In order to facilitate the growth of your students, you have to be involved in their growth. 

When you are engaged and interact with your students they're going to get a better feel of who you are.   What we often forget in live or even recorded sessions is that you are still creating a relationship with your students.  If there isn’t that connection, how are they going to judge the situation and understand your expressions completely? 

Strategy #2. Don’t let the Malcontents and the Chatters Win

Just like students who are grumpy, there are going to be students that have a difficult time understanding when to stop the conversation and listen.. It's who they are.  What’s always interesting is that these kinds of students often don’t realize that they are being grumpy or talking too much. 

With these kinds of individuals, you have to regularly interrupt them.  Not even joking here.  

Yes, make sure it is polite to get their attention!  Once you have it, redirect the student or gently let them know that other students need to express their thoughts as well.

Talkers are also going to create issues when you're trying to have a group session. They aren't always going to take over the discussion, but it is a possibility. But the highlight? They can generally hold very substantial conversations when you help them guide their talking. 

The Malcontents are actually VERY similar to the Talking Tanya’s.  Generally, they are going to say things that are just slightly off-color, not participate actively and they are also going to be difficult to handle.  At times you could also face a few issues and complaints via email. You will need to set rules and stick to those rules so that it doesn't get out of hand.

So how do you help the situation?

Create more breakout groups, and let Chatters and Malcontents alike lead more conversations while you help facilitate the environment.

These two strategies are some of the best strategies that you can use with any kind of large group, or small group. Continue to focus on the quality of what you're producing. Don't let your quality slip just because you're still learning how to facilitate. Use these tips, engage with your students, and make sure you're managing the classroom, and you'll be good to go.