January 07, 2004
How to facilitate e-learning courses
By Brooke Broadbent and Regan Legassie
To appear in the 2003 Training Sourcebook edited by Mel Silberman
"In any e-learning project, there are three factors that should be considered from the outset:
the effect of the final product on the intended learners;
the ability of the organization to support and adjust to e-learning; and
the role of and requirement for e-learning instructors.
Experience has shown that most e-learning efforts focus on the first two factors exclusively and only give a cursory thought to the third. This is a serious mistake. To be effective, any e-learning project must ensure that equal weight and consideration is given to all three factors – failure to do will yield poor or less then desirable results. Since many other sources offer excellent ideas for consideration of learners and organizational requirements for e-learning, the focus here is to look at how the instructor is affected by e-learning.
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Guide on the Side Facilitation
Many online instructors limit themselves to using two or three approaches while many others are available. There is good evidence that productive online discussion results from moderators cautiously intervening in the process and not intervening as subject matter experts; in more colorful words, online facilitation success comes with the style of guide on the side versus sage on the stage (Collision et al, 2000). Our table examines six of these guide on the side approaches or persona available to online facilitators, working in both a synchronous and asynchronous mode"