If you're here then you are ready to start the course activities. Depending on your level of involvement you should expect to devote up to ten hours per week to this course. If you become very active you may want to devote even more time to the course so you'll need to manage your time carefully. When you've read this overview of the course please come straight to the Week One activities to get started.
In this week we focus on helping everyone to get ready for the course. You will receive your course arrivals document and your username and password for our course site. Then you will be able to log in to the site and take a look around.
In this week we focus on welcoming everyone to the course, familiarising ourselves with the course environment, programme and outcomes and getting to meet each other online. You will also have an opportunity to consider your strengths and learning opportunities as an online facilitator.
In this week we consider strategies for building online learning communities, agreements about how our community will work together and some online facilitation skills and strategies. Along the way we will get to know each other better.
In this week we continue our development of facilitation skills and strategies. In particular we focus on questioning, summarising and weaving conversations. We will also consider the similarities and difference between face-to-face facilitation and online facilitation. By the end of this week you will be able to play a very useful role as an online facilitator in a course or online learning community.
In this week we strengthen our facilitation skills. We consider strategies for dealing with differences and conflict and building trust in online communities. Towards the end of the week you will use a simple template to develop an online activity for use in one of your courses or learning communities.
In this week we prepare for leaving the course and becoming independent online facilitators. We look at ways of building networks and finding resources as part of our personal development plans. Then its time to share our closing reflections and to say goodbye.