Role of Facilitators

In order for distance learning to work, though, a facilitator needs to be aware of their role in the course as well as ways to promote student engagement.

Role of Facilitators

Provide feedback to students         Know Students          Engage students in the learning taking place

Monitor discussions for good digital citizenship          Promote student involvement and replies amongst classmates

Facilitators need to do the 4 previous things in order to help make their distance-learning course successful. If they provide feedback to the students, it allows all students to see what the facilitator is looking for in terms of effort and  what answers or responses should be like (Simonson et al., 2012). Facilitators need to know their students in order to provide applicable feedback and to ask appropriate questions of the learners (See Get Started for more information). Next, if facilitators interact with the learners through discussions it promotes engagement among the learners by showing them how to interact with each other (See Teaching Materials for more informations and various tools to use). Monitoring for good digital citizenship with citations and grammar skills is also important. Also, it will help with students being supportive of one another or providing good critiques instead of unhealthy debates within discussions.  There are different ways for facilitators to promote student engagement within their distance learning course.

Ways to Promote Student Engagement

Ask questions of the students in discussion          Provide additional materials for students to look at

            Facilitators who ask questions of students within discussions automatically engage students by pulling them further into the discussion. This allows for deeper thought on the student’s part but not just the student the instructor asked the question of but also the other students within the course. Another way to help students become engaged in a distance learning course is to add materials that may not be in the textbook—maybe a video that is more relevant to the course or gives a better example (shows) than the required readings.

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References