Fundamentals of online facilitation: A course for developing (online) teachers

This CIE will showcase the Fundamentals of Online Facilitation course that the facilitators taught instructors who were starting to teach in a blended format and report on the lessons learned, efficacy of the instruction and the faculty experience of the participants in the course. They will also discuss what changes they plan to make in the course design and facilitation, explaining how those changes are driven by the data collected.

Facilitation of online or blended learning and faculty readiness to teach in these modalities are challenges faced by most if not all the AMICAL institutions, because while many universities in North America have experience in creating online and blended learning, institutions within AMICAL are and will be competing with those institutions for students, if they don’t have strong experiences and lessons to build on for high quality online instruction. This course serves as a model solution for institutions that are looking to build digital literacy and online facilitation skills of their members, specifically professional and adjust faculty, as well as all academic staff.