Facilitation

Quality teaching practices includes an awareness and accommodation of your students and their learning needs for success.  Do you know the answer to the following?

Facilitating for learning

• How do you facilitate a deep level of learning, as opposed to surface learning, for your students?

Principles of facilitation

• Do you include social, teacher and cognitive presence in your online teaching?

Models of 'flipped' facilitation

• Are you confident in facilitating ‘flipped’ approaches to learning at a class or course level?

Collaborative teaching practices

• Are you working effectively as a teaching team with your colleagues across campuses?

Group work

• What strategies do you use to maximise learning through effective use of group work?

Quality facilitation practices

• Are you effectively managing you teaching time?

Engaging online facilitation

• Are you an active member of the students learning community?

Engaging face-to-face facilitation

• Are you maximising the on-campus class time with active learning sessions?

Engaging blended facilitation

• In considering the ‘blend’ of face-to-face and online in your teaching have you critically assessed the balance to ensure that all components of good teaching and learning practice are covered?

Technologies to enhance teaching

• Are you using the right technologies to facilitate the learning journey?

The BOLD Learning and Teaching Practices provide clear guidelines to support teaching practices for different delivery/study modes, opportunities for self-assessment and reflection on current teaching practices, and opportunities for collaborative discussion with peers and learning designers to enhance online teaching practices.  The minimum course expectations for facilitating a quality learning journey to support student success are outline in Focus Area 02. View the BOLD Learning and Teaching Practices.

Focus Area 02 | Teacher presence and communication, facilitation and interaction

2.1 Contact details and availability of all course teaching team members clearly stated.

2.2 A course welcome/introduction is provided.

2.3 Expected learner query response times are clearly stated.

2.4 Online communication etiquette (netiquette) expectations are clearly stated

2.5 The strategy for using News Forum/Announcement (one way) posts is clearly stated.

2.6 News Forum/Announcement (one way) posts are made in accordance with the stated strategy.

2.7 Learners are provided with opportunities for collaboration and interactivity (ie: peer-peer, learner-teacher and teacher-learner).

• Asynchronous communication, requiring teacher and learner interaction (ie: General (topic/module) and Q&A forum discussions).
• Synchronous communication, requiring teacher and learner interaction (ie: Adobe Connect virtual classes and/or office hours).

Federation University offers the following ongoing professional development opportunities to support teaching staff with better facilitation practices in all modes of delivery:

• L&T Webinars – Virtual | Quarterly. Check out the virtual webinars offered throughout the year to support quality facilitation practices.
• L&T Workshops – Virtual or face-to-face | On request. Workshops can be organised for your Instituteto address your specific facilitation needs for all learning environments. Contact your Director, Learning and Teaching or Institute Learning Designer to see what is, or can be, organised for delivery in your area.
• Learning Technology Hub - Online | Just-in-time. Information on how to use a range of functions within supported learning technologies to enhance your facilitation practices
• Professional Learning Modules – Online | self-paced | certificate issued on completion. The following modules are currently available:
  • PLM504: Facilitating quality online discussions
• Graduate Certificate in Education (Tertiary Education) – This postgraduate award course is designed to support tertiary teachers deliver quality, contemporary teaching practices in the higher education setting. Modules on facilitation include the: Dynamics of teaching, Online learning and teaching, Blended learning and teaching, and Teaching with impact.