Online Facilitation- Creating Online Facilitation Charter

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Hi Prospective Facilitators!

Welcome to the first post in a four part series on: Online Facilitation.

Image created by author using Canva

In this post I will speak about Creating Online Facilitation Charters.

When you hear the term "Online Facilitation Charter", what comes to mind? If you said a plan/guide to deliver instructional content in the online learning environment, you are absolutely correct👍

Online Facilitation Charter: Why?

Facilitating online courses requires great work and consideration. Some persons are of the view that you just do what you were doing in the face-to-face class, only in this case on a virtual learning platform; this is quite the misconception.  Mintz(2020) posits that, high-quality online teaching is more difficult and demanding than its face-to-face counterpart. It requires more upfront planning, preparation, and more individualized feedback and assistance. We can see that having a good facilitation charter would be very essential to planning educational programmes and subsequently towards implementation and successful goal achievement.

Plans are essential in providing a guide either to the creator or those who the information is intended for. Imagine having the best plan but it only exists in your head? Others would not be able to see what your plan is all about or how it is outlined. According to an article on the website by Center for Academic Excellence(2022), it is highly recommended that facilitators share their plan/charter with their students. It is felt that this will 'set the tone of your teaching and set clear expectations from the beginning of the course', as also provide a visual explanation of how the course is structured.


Image courtesy of slideshare.net


Below is a sample facilitation charter for a webinar on Academic Integrity created by yours truly.



Importance of Facilitation Charters

I have learnt, from my enrollment in a class on facilitating online courses, that the Facilitation Charter acts as a detailed guide to planning and implementing an event, programme or  course. The use of this charter is not only applicable to facilitating online courses but is also very useful for face-to-face delivery as well; it serves similar purpose to a lesson plan/facilitation plan in the physical classroom setting.

In the words of Martin, Wand, & Sadaf(2020), "Online course facilitation is critical to the success of online courses". As a result of this, the need for a charter is instrumental to this noted success. The adage "If you fail to plan then you plan to fail" holds true. Having a blueprint of the goals and objectives, delivery strategies, activities, methods, assessment and tools that will be involved in the implementation and execution of the programme, will definitely be a plus in the quest for success. 

Burns(2016) has indicated how important it is to include a facilitation charter when considering designing effective online courses. She indicates in her article just how important this is by stating, "Effective online courses are well designed so that teaching and learning is organized in the most effective and engaging manner possible." The design here not only speaks to the content to be taught, but also to have a structured outline to aid in the entire process from start to finish.

If you are a facilitator/ lecturer/ teacher and you have not started using a facilitation charter yet, start today!



References

Burns, M. (2016). Designing effective online courses: 10 considerations. Retrieved (2022,
     June 15) from https://elearningindustry.com/designing-effective-online-courses-10-
     considerations

Center for Academic Excellence. (2022, June 15). Key considerations when designing an
     online course. Retrieved     
     from https://www.niagaracollege.ca/cae/eddev/teaching- resources/online-
     teaching/design/key-considerations/

Martin,F., Wang, C., & Sadaf, A. (2020).

     Facilitation matters: Instructor perception of helpfulness of facilitation strategies in 
     online courses. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24059/olj.v24i1.1980

Mintz, S. (2020, Mar. 17). Transitioning to online
     teaching. https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-
     history/march-2020/transitioning-to-online-teaching-a-how-to-guide




Keep Learning!
Simone Sampson


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