Picture of a mirror lying in the grassWelcome to the final week of FLO! By this stage of the course, you have explored the essentials of online facilitation and learning, the importance of community and how to cultivate it, the role of forum-based discussions, and your own pedagogical values and how they might inform your teaching practice. These themes coalesce this week with a deeper focus on reflective practice.

According to researchers and instructors exploring the Community of Inquiry framework, facilitation is the strategies, techniques and communication an instructor employs to support and guide online learners. Facilitation is considered as a separate group of skills that are employed to support learners in critical reflection and inquiry and to keep them engaged in learning. Below are some examples:

  • encouraging discussion and reflection;
  • modelling appropriate participation and critical thinking;
  • monitoring and regulating learning of students;
  • supporting student self-regulation and monitoring; and
  • encouraging peer-to-peer learning and connection.

Your main learning activity for this week will be to draw together your key learnings, insights, and reflections from the last four weeks into an online teaching philosophy statement. You will have opportunities to:

This week follows the same format as weeks 2-4, with learning activities from Monday – Thursday facilitated by a team of your peers, followed by reflection activities from Friday to Sunday. As usual, please complete the activities in the order that you see them on the page, and refer to the Course schedule for a list of what needs to be completed.

Good luck peer facilitation team! 😊

(Photo by Jovis Aloor on Unsplash)

[Note for FLO facilitators: We recommend you include an audio option for the text above here if using a platform that does not have an audio feature built in. Remove this note before offering starts.]

Last modified: Tuesday, 4 August 2020, 9:38 AM