What is Online Facilitation?
Online facilitation, to me, is similar to managing a group of people who are connected via the internet or other medium such as the telephone. It brings together people who have a common interest and goal. Participants may be of diverse background, age, location, personalities, and skill level concerning technology. The facilitator assumes multiple roles and responsibilities:
- keeping the group together
- maintaining lively interaction among members
- formulating and upholding rules of interaction
- allowing the participants to learn for themselves and at their own pace
- easing the process of online conferencing
How do these skills differ from face-to-face facilitation?
I’ve made a table that shows the differences in the dynamics between face-to-face and online facilitation.
| Face-to-face facilitation | Online facilitation |
| - group comes together at a common venue and time | - group participants can be widely dispersed in location and can participate at different times when it is convenient for them |
| - encourages interaction and sharing with the group | - may have “private” conversations with a subset of members (via e-mail, etc.) |
| - sessions have a limited duration; but the group may persist with reconvening sessions | - ongoing and may persist as long as participants are interested and continue to interact |
| - discussion is usually linear, following an outline and each person discusses and comments as a topic is discussed | - participants may comment immediately or at a later time/date or return to an earlier topic - several topics may spring up simultaneously |
| - observable non-verbal cues; facilitator knows how a participant is feeling (engaged, bored, interested, irate, etc.) | - facilitator has to interpret the tone of written messages |
| - facilitator can monitor participants activities during the session | - facilitator usually assesses after the activity is done |
The online facilitator then, should have the skills to
- adjust to different learning preferences, needs, and speed
- encourage participation
- detect problems with participants/trainees (especially when they do not voice out any difficulties or are too timid to ask for help)
- allow participants to learn on their own
- address technical issues: troubleshooting the computer, internet connection, how to use the applications/software and online tools, etc.
What experiences do I have of online facilitation both as a facilitator, and as a participant in a community, network or event?
My experience with online sessions is limited to talking with friends over Skype and Yahoo! Messenger. Our group tried to hold a meeting using Skype while I was away but we had problems with the quality of sound reaching me. The recent experience with FO2011 has been enriching and I now can see greater possibilities with online communication.
What have you seen work well, and what has worked less well?
So far, on Elluminate, the meetings have gone well and are very successful at achieving their goals. It gives each participant the chance to interact while the Staff Member still maintains certain control. The downside is the audio quality at times, which tends to break up. Luckily, there’s a backup text message board. On my end, I have to struggle with focusing on the discussion because I can’t see the speaker and my eyes tend to wander about and I may get distracted J I’ve tried taking down notes to keep me focused.
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