Facilitating Online/Resources

Here are additional resources and readings that will fill in gaps and increase your understanding of online facilitation. You are encouraged to dip in and out of these resources as you need. Please feel free to add to this page any references or resources you may find that you think will be of interest to participants of the course.

Background Information

 * "An anthropological introduction to YouTube". This is a video of a presentation by Michael Wesch at the Library of Congress, June 23rd 2008 - another fascinating insight into our modern world.
 * Glossary of online interaction - this glossary is essential to read if you are unfamiliar with online terminology. Nancy White begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting 2008.
 * The 1% Rule, Wikipedia, May 2010. The rule of thumb that explain rates of online participation and lurking.

Teaching and Learning in the Digital World

 * Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. This new learning theory developed by George Siemens is a useful article for teachers to help them understand how students learn in this digital age.
 * Audio and Elluminate recording *"Curatorial Teaching" - a discussion of another model of facilitation, teaching and learning by George Siemens, 2007.
 * Three generations of Distance Education Pedagogy: Challenges and Opportunities. Presentation by Terry Anderson which explains how teaching/learning online has changed over the years.
 * To facilitate or to teach. Leigh Blackall, 2007 - post and comments. This is a discussion about the difference between teaching and facilitation.
 * Working out the difference between teaching and facilitation. Sarah Stewart, 2009 - post and comments.
 * How connectivism changes my teaching practice, Sarah Stewart 2008 - reflecting on what it means to be a teacher in the networked world.
 * Personal Learning Environments - the future of eLearning?. Graham Attwell 2007. This article talks about how learners take control of their own learning in the digital world, and organise themselves as life-long learners.
 * Flowchart - Planning for Online Delivery by Tracie Regan, Wide Bay Institute of TAFE, Australia. Published by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework but may be re-produced for education purposes.
 * Guide for planning online classes, courses and activities by Tracie Regan, Wide Bay Institute of TAFE, Australia.

For Non-Profit Organisations

 * A discussion about the challenges facing non-profit and non-government organisations as they become increasing involved in eProjects: Does e-participation change anything for watchdogs?. This article talks about Slovenia, but the issues are applicable to NGOs anywhere.
 * Facilitating and hosting a virtual community by Nancy White. This article talks about the facilitation of online communities which often is the focus of non-profit organisations. However, the resources, advice and information in this article are relevant for teachers wishing to facilitate communities of learning and practice, or people wishing to build communities of interest for customers or fans.
 * Beth Kanter: 9 Ways Nonprofits Can Excel Using Social Media. Beth is a key person to follow if you are interested in developing an online presence for your non-profit organisation.
 * 4 Ways Social Media is Changing the Non-Profit World. Beth Kanter 2009.

For Businesses

 * Social Network Tools that Boost Your Businessby Daniel Burrus, 2010. Although this article is under the 'business' section, it is a valuable article for all of us.
 * When to Use Social Media for Learning by Michele B. Medved, 2010. Workplace learning professionals should focus on how social learning and its associated tools can help achieve business goals.
 * Virtual Teams. Free Management Library, no date.
 * Community Netiquette: How to Avoid Stepping on Virtual Toes by Jake McKee, 2009.
 * Social Media for Business: The Dos &amp; Don’ts of Sharing by Sarah Evans 2009.
 * Businesses and social media - a few tips from the customer by Sarah Stewart 2010.

What is an online community and network?

 * Communities of Practice: Learning as a Social System by Etienne Wenger 1998.
 * Making sense of the difference between network and community. Discussion led by Etienne Wenger, 2010.
 * Networks, Connections and Community: Learning with Social Software by Val Evans 2007.

Building and facilitating an online community or network

 * The Art of Building Virtual Communities by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach 2007.
 * This book chapter takes you through the process of "stewarding an online community. Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communities by Etienne Wenger, Nancy White and John D. Smith, 2009. NB: Does take a while to download and can freeze your computer for a couple of minutes.
 * Web Worker Daily: Building Online Community Brick by Virtual Brick. "Since I first got online in 1987, I’ve been using the Internet (or at that time, Bulletin Board Systems) for not only communications but for community building - for my own projects and for clients".
 * How To Build An Online Community: The Ultimate List Of Resources by Richard Millington, 2010.
 * How Do You Manage Global Virtual Teams? - Managing Groups and Teams.
 * Do you push or pull? by Taylor Davidson, 2010. This is an article about how to use networks and make the most of serendipity.

Social Networking

 * Apophenia: The Economist Debate on Social "Networking" - Given that MySpace and Facebook are ubiquitous, can social networking be defined as the "collective power of community to help inform perspectives that would not be unilaterally formed" or is it simply a distraction for students?
 * QUT News Schools' Web 2.0 ban contributes to social exclusion - Queensland University of Technology media and communication PhD candidate Tanya Notley, from the Creative Industries Faculty, said social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook were blocked on all Queensland State school computers, denying many students without home internet access use of these sites to learn and participate in an increasingly networked society.
 * Young People and Social Networking Services The project is designed to investigate how social networking services can and are being used to support personalised formal and informal learning by young people in schools and colleges.

Facilitation Skills

 * Effective online facilitation. Australian Flexible Learning Framework, 2003. Although this article is directed at teachers and educators, the principles of online facilitation apply to everyone.
 * My Old Online Facilitation Workshop Materials by Nancy White, 2010.
 * The Role of the Online Instructor/Facilitator by Zane Berge (1995). This article was written a while ago but is still relevant.
 * Tony Carr, Shaheeda Jaffer and Jeanne Smuts Facilitating Online
 * The CU Online Handbook, 2009. This handbook is aimed at educators but has strategies that are relevant in online environments other than education. I have found the advice from Joanne Dunlap about online discussions to be especially helpful:
 * Down-and-dirty Guidelines for Effective Discussions in Online Courses
 * Protocols for Online Discussions
 * Improving the Odds of Effective Collaborative Work in Online Courses
 * Promoting critical thinking in online discussions. This is an Elluminate recording of a talk given by Greg Walker in 2010. Greg is an educational technology developer and distance education coordinator at the Leeward Community College, Hawaii, USA
 * Organising and facilitating an online event with social media by Sarah Stewart, 2010.
 * Tips for using social media to organising and facilitating an online event by Sarah Stewart, 2010.
 * What is a 'troll'? Read this article from Wikipedia "Troll (Internet)"

Facilitating asynchronous communication (email groups, discussion forums or bulletin boards)

 * Relating to the book Managing Online Forums
 * Why making all of your forums private is a bad idea
 * The first chapter as an excerpt
 * How To Behave On An Internet Forum - Video on how to behave in forums
 * Online Facilitation YahooGroup - Linked by Nancy White 2008
 * What are the Differences Between Message Boards and Weblogs? - article by leelefever on August 24, 2004
 * Communication dynamics: Discussion boards, weblogs and the development of communities of inquiry in online learning environments- paper by James Farmer posted on Incorporated Subversion on October 5th 2004
 * Communication Dynamics: Discussion Boards, Weblogs, Wikis Recording made of James Farmer´s presentation on January 24th 2005 for the Tesol Electronic Village Online Weblogging Session moderated by Barbara Dieu, Aaron Campbell and Graham Stanley.

Facilitating synchronous communication (virtual meetings, webinars, conference calls, workshops, tutorials and online conferences)

 * 19 Tips for Effective Online Conferences by Tony Karrer, 2010.
 * Kevin Micalizz, 2009. Learn the secret to a great web meeting.
 * Julia Young, 2009. Where Rubber Meets Road: Real Experiences Transitioning To Virtual Workshops.
 * Julia Young, 2009. Where Rubber Meets Road (2): Six Traps to Avoid When Designing Your First Virtual Workshop.

Online Cultural Competence

 * Wikipedia article: Intercultural communication principles.
 * Susan Herring's Gender and power in online communication
 * Sarah Stewart (2010) reflects on she understands by Cultural competence in the online environment.
 * Catherine McCloughlin &amp; R. Olivier, 1999. Instructional design for cultural difference: a case study of the indigenous online learning in a tertiary context. This is a very useful paper for educators who are thinking about how they can design their courses to be culturally sensitive.
 * This is a presentation by Kate Timms-Dean, 2010. Indigenous learners and flexible learning. The accompanying audio recording can be found here - not all will be relevant, so you will have to pick and choose what is useful to you.
 * How to use an online language translator - instructions on how to use a translator and what are the disadvantages.

Sustainability

 * ResearchSpace at The University of Auckland: Interaction between existing social networks and information and communication technology (ICT) tools: As a conclusion, it is suggested any ICT intervention in a developing country requires at least three elements to be effective: a tolerable physical infrastructure, a strong degree of social texture and an activator of information.
 * Article in Wikipedia: Electronic waste.
 * Will videoconferencing kill business class travel? by Andrew Winston, 2009.

Blog

 * Create and maintain a basic blog. This is a page set in a resource called 'Online Information Literacy' developed as a joint project by Otago Polytechnic and the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand..
 * 31 days of activities that will help you set up and develop your blog: The 31 Day Blog Challenge.
 * 31 days of activities that will help you improve how you facilitate blogging discussions by your use of comments on a blog - The 31 Day Comment Challenge.
 * Blogging - Not ‘IF’ but When and Where. UPEI presentation | Dave’s Educational Blog - Blogging, like ‘academic writing’ is a vague label that really doesn’t do justice to the complexities of the subject it is meant to cover. Blogging is appropriate any time that people need to be kept ‘up to date’ with a topic, a person, images,
 * Radio New Zealand audio recording: Focus on Politics for 16 May 2008 - Life's a blog. Kate Williamson looks at how the Internet is being used to campaign in election year. File Size:6MB
 * Classrooms as Third Places CC By Konrad Glogowski with audio recorded presentation and discussion around Konrad's research in developing a community or writers through blogging.
 * Blogosphere - Wikipedia, July 2008
 * Into the Blogosphere - a series of papers and articles on blogging
 * Educational Blogging Stephen Downes 2004 paper on blogging.
 * The blogging handbook. This wiki resource is partially complete so please feel free to add context to the empty pages.

Wiki

 * Free online workshops that will teach you how to use Wikieducator. For more information, please email Wayne Mackintosh [mailto:mackintosh.wayne@gmail.com Email]
 * Help with using a MediaWiki
 * Collaborate using a wiki. This is a page set in a resource called 'Online Information Literacy' developed as a joint project by Otago Polytechnic and the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
 * Harold Rheingold's video interview with Mark Elliot about the use of a wiki for Melbourne's city plan, and about the concept of stigmergy. Many thanks to Cathy Deckers for the find.
 * Information Literacy And Web 2.0: The Wild, Wild Wiki Wiki / Wiki Writing: Collaborative Learning in the College Classroom
 * Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Nature's Flawed Study of Wikipedia's Quality - Kapor's remarks inspired me to take a look at that much-cited Nature article. I found that it was something less than I had expected.
 * Abject Learning: Is murder, madness and mayhem the future of higher education? - I decided to include wikipedia as a central part of a course I was teaching in the belief that it was only by actively contributing to the encyclopedia that they would learn about its weaknesses, and also its strengths.
 * What to Do With Wikipedia By William Badke. Often banned by professors, panned by traditional reference book publishers, and embraced by just about everyone else, Wikipedia marches on like a great beast, growing larger and more commanding every day. With no paid editors and written by almost anyone, it shouldn’t have succeeded, but it has. In fact, it’s now emerged as the No. 1 go-to information source in the world. It’s used not only by the great unwashed but also by many educated people as well. ONLINE reported on the Pew Internet &amp; American Life Project’s findings that 36% of the American population regularly consult Wikipedia (July/August 2007, p. 6).

Skype

 * How to download Skype and set up an account

Elluminate

 * How to use Elluminate for class meetings and webconferencing.
 * Free webinars sponsored by Elluminate.
 * Tips for making Elluminate virtual classroom sessions more interactive - recording of Elluminate meeting and demonstration by Jo Hart. Jo has a blog packed with tips and advice for using Elluminate which can be transported into any virtual classroom setting.
 * Tips and tricks from Carole McCulloch (Coach Carole): Four Steps to confidence as an Elluminate Moderator

WiziQ

 * How to use WiziQ for meetings and web conferences

Twitter

 * Some advice on How to get a conversation going on Twitter? from Sarah Stewart, 2010.
 * Teaching, Learning and Twitter by Sarah Stewart, 2009.
 * More advice from Sarah Stewart, 2009. How do you know who to follow on Twitter?.
 * How to moderate a Twitter event: 9 tips on moderating a tweet chat by Brian Dreshe, 2010.
 * A rant about how businesses should use Twitter:Businesses and social media - a few tips from the customer by Sarah Stewart, 2010.

Facebook

 * The Facebook Guidebook by Mashable, 2010.
 * Josh Catone: HOW TO: Organize an Event on Facebook, 2009.
 * 100 Ways You Should Be Using Facebook in Your Classroom - Online College.org.

Second Life

 * Matthew Wheeler and Gilly Salmon Second Life Guide for SL-moderators.
 * Using virtual worlds such as Second Life for facilitating learning, project work and meetings. This is an Elluminate recording of a talk given by KerryJ.

Evaluation

 * How to make an online survey using free tools Google Forms and/or SurveyMonkey.
 * Assessing Online Facilitation (AOF) Instrument provided by the Community of Academic Technology Staff, USA. This form will give you a framework to base your evaluation on. Some elements of the instrument will not be relevant to your activity or context, so take what is most useful from it.
 * Evaluation of eLearning for Best Practice. This is another online course that has a lot of material and information about evaluation of education.

Organisational Tools

 * Doodle - a tool that allows you to schedule meetings with people across time zones.
 * World Clock - tool for working out international time zones.

And More