This document provides guidance on effective facilitation in synchronous online environments. It discusses establishing ground rules for participant interaction, using webcams, managing multiple presentation venues. The impacts of text chat on participants and presenters are examined, including advantages like feedback and engagement, and disadvantages like distraction. Designing for interactivity through activities is covered. Finally, tensions between synchronous and asynchronous approaches are discussed, and ways to resolve them through optional sessions, archiving, and flipped classroom models.

1. Effective Facilitation in
Synchronous
Environments
(Session 1 of 2)
Michael Coghlan
NewLearning
21/3/13

2. Welcome to Today’s Session
While you are waiting please type your name beside a
chair by using the text tool „A‟.

4. SHOW US WHERE YOU ARE...

5. PERSONALISE THE
EXPERIENCE

6. META:

7. Establish „Modus Operandi‟
(Ground Rules) for the session
• Questions/Comments: any time?
Throughout session? At the end? In
text chat? Via voice? Using
the hands-up tool?
• How will you handle the
text chat? Will you use a co-
moderator?

8. TO CAM OR NOT TO CAM?

9. USE OF WEBCAMS
• Use your webcam (or at least show a
picture) briefly at the start of the session as
part of the introduction
• Have students do the same if they have
them , if they want to, and if bandwidth
allows
• I recommend you then turn off webcams to
conserve bandwidth, but it is a personal
choice.

10. MULTIPLE VENUE
CLASSROOM/
PRESENTATIONS F2F VENUE
(MVPs)
remote
students guest public
lecturer space

11. Quiz – Multiple Choice
Are you:
A) In your office?
B) In a computer suite?
C) At home?
D) Other?

12. MVPs: Implications
Participants can be in a variety of
locations:
• F2f classroom, lecture theatre
• PC suite
• Office (at work)
• Home office/study
• Other (café, beach)

13. WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS
OF A GOOD TEACHER?

14. TEXT CHAT
ACTIVITY

15. HOW TO IMPROVE THE HKUST
STUDENT EXPERIENCE...

16. MANAGING THE BACK CHANNEL

17. Impact for Participants
Advantages Disadvantages

18. Impact for Participants
Advantages Disadvantages
• Audience is more engaged • May miss some points while writing
• You don‟t have to wait till the end of a commentary, responding to other
presentation to ask questions or backchannellers
comment • Is mentally very taxing
• Can communicate with other people • May start to stray off-topic (what‟s for
in the room about issues raised in the lunch? How are the kids? Etc)
presentation • Opportunity to make negative
• Provides you with an archive of the remarks about the speaker
presentation (note taking)

19. Impact for Speaker/Presenter
Advantages Disadvantages

20. Impact for Speaker/Presenter
Advantages Disadvantages
• Can get real time feedback from audience • May appear as if many are not paying
• Can ensure that you are meeting attention
audience needs/answering urgent • Your audience has access to a „critical
questions channel‟
• Promotes greater level of engagement • Your thoughts may be communicated to
• a listener may elaborate on something an audience for whom they were not
you‟re saying (eg add more information intended
about a theory, post a URL, suggested a • Can be overwhelming to keep track of
related blog, etc) (may require working in tandem with a
• May get positive feedback from audience moderator)
as it happens
• Models a new way of teaching/presenting
that is less teacher-centric and more
network-centric

21. QUICK POLL –
ENCOURAGE
STUDENTS TO USE
TEXT CHAT?
YES OR NO?

22. PURPOSE?
• a presentation tool?
• a collaboration/
interaction tool?

23. HOW MIGHT YOU USE WEB
CONFERENCING
/VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS?

24. What kinds of synchronous activities can
you use in virtual classrooms?
TEACHING OTHER
• „straight lecture‟ • Office hours
• Guest lecturers • Peer support
• Oral presentations • Social: student -
• Group work student
• One on one (eg
pronunciation)

25. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Attend online
conferences, seminars, workshops
• Meetings (much more cost effective
than teleconferencing)

26. SWOT ANALYSIS

27. ADVANTAGES/
DISADVANTAGES?

28. SHORT MOVIE QUIZ

29. DESIGNING FOR
INTERACTION
examples of this in
this session?

30. RESOURCE
See the wiki at http://synchfacilitation.wikispaces.com/

32. Next Session (March 28th)
• Synch v asynch: resolving the tension
• The synchronous compact
• More on Designing for interactivity

33. Contact Details
MICHAEL COGHLAN
http://michaelcoghlan.net
e: michaelc@chariot.net.au

34. Sample Activity
activity courtesy of LearningTimes

35. SYNCHRONOUS ASYNCHRONOUS

36. COMMUNICATION AXIS
Reflective; Structured;
monologue expository
Asynch
Minimalist; rapid
Spontaneous;
(evolving)
dialogue
Synch
Oral Written

37. COMMUNICATION AXIS
Most classroom communications take place here
New – have been enabled by technology (only happen online)

38. Tension: Synch v Asynch
Terry Anderson, Toward a Theory of Online
Learning:
“….the major motivation for enrollment in distance education is
not physical access, but rather, temporal freedom to move
through a course of studies at a pace of the student’s
choice.” Participation in (synchronous events) “almost
inevitably places constraints on this independence.”
“ The demands of a learning-centered context might at times
force us to modify prescriptive participation in (synchronous
events), even though we might have evidence that such
participation will further advance knowledge creation and
attention.”

39. RESOLVING THE TENSION BETWEEN ASYNCHRONOUS AND
SYNCHRONOUS APPROACHES
• don‟t make synch sessions compulsory; use synch for
those who want it
• use tools that can record or archive the sessions for
later retrieval
• Use in conjunction with asynchronous activity
• don‟t use synchronous for whole class instruction
• FLIPPED CLASSROOM