The document outlines a facilitator training program with four parts. Part I discusses the training program goals of teaching facilitators how to engage online learners and provide effective feedback and assessments. Part II covers the skills and phases of development needed for effective distance learning facilitation. Part III identifies learning management systems and technology tools for presenting content, discussions, and student collaboration. Part IV describes different learner types, synchronous vs asynchronous facilitation, and managing issues like feedback, challenging behaviors, and accessibility. The training aims to help facilitators effectively instruct trainees on quality customer service skills through online learning.

1. FACILITATOR TRAINING
PROGRAM
Sheri Alexander
CUR 532 Facilitating Online Learning
Professor Gregory Jackson
March 19, 2018

2. “
”
-Sheri Alexander
Corporate Facilitator
Treat everyone with kindness. Respect and integrity will
take you over that mountain you are about to climb.
Never look down while you climb, only look up to the
heavens, as the sky is the limit.

3. COURSE CONTENT
Part I – Vital Information in the Facilitator Training
 Training Program Audience
 Training Program Goals
 Measureable Objectives for the Training Program
 Summative Assessment for the Trainees
Part II – Facilitator Skills and Instructional Materials
 Skills Needed for Effective Distance Learning
Facilitators
 Phases of Development for Distance Learning
Facilitators
 Theories of Distance Learning
 Theories for Engaging Distance Learners
Part III – Technology Tools
 Learning Platform (LMS/CMS) Used by Distance
Learning Faculty for Their Classes
 Three Different Technology or Media Tools That
Engage and Enhance Student Learning
 Three Different Technology Tools for Student
Collaboration
 Clear Description of How Each Technology or Media
Tool Will Engage Students and Enhance Their
Learning
Part IV – Issues and Classroom Management
 Description of Different Distance Learners
 Description of the Differences Between Synchronous
and Asynchronous Facilitation Sills
 Three Technology Management Issues and
Resolutions
 Incorporate Classroom Management Issues and
Resolutions
 References

4. Part I – Vital Information in the Facilitator Training
The training program audience is the corporate trainees that will be learning how to instruct
their students who will be learning the best customer service skills available through this online
course in a asynchronous environment.
 Skill sets for the corporate trainees will be college graduates and unexperienced online facilitators.
 Theses unexperienced corporate trainees should have educational, customer service, and supervisory
experience.
 Current knowledge level will be different for each trainee as acquired experience will be on different knowledge
levels.
The training program goals will help you as trainees to learn about quality customer service
summative assessments, phases of development for distance learning, and how to manage
conflicts between students, customers and good skills associated with excellent customer service.
Program Goals

5. Program Measurable Objectives
 As corporate trainees you will learn how to keep students engaged in online learning.
 You will also be able to provide constructive feedback and evaluations.
 You will be able to facilitate online course material.
 You will be able to identify technical issues and help to resolve these issues.
 You will be able to set a rubric that will be used to evaluate the student’s performance and
assignments.
Summative Assessment for the trainees based on the following questions:
 How is the course addressing the issues of customer service skills which you as trainees will
need to learn? You will be addressing the quality of excellent customer service skills through an
understanding of this material presented, success of the course will be measured by online group
assignment whereby you will work on collaborative teams together, and show you are learning
customer service skills by presenting a program presentation on quality customer service.
• The success of the program will be measured by the end of course evaluations, surveys and formative
end of course assessments.

6. It is all about online learning
made easy for facilitators to
instruct their trainees about
quality customer service skills
which every corporate trainee
should know once they learn
the material.
Corporate Facilitator
Corporate Trainee

7. Part II – Facilitator Skills and Instructional Materials
What skills are needed to create effective distance learning?
The skills needed to create effective communication skills and effective written communication skills whereby,
you as the corporate trainees, will be able to explain the assignments and or material used in this online course
for good customer service.
What strategies might you use to present these skills to facilitators?
The skills presented to you as the trainees will encompass strategies to handle and addresses conflicts of
students, encouraging strategies to help the students will being the role of a cheerleader and to keep a positive
learning environment for the students to learn, direct students to interact between each other about the
material, and post questions for conversation starters to get the class interacting amongst themselves.

8. Phases of Development
Visitor – Those trainees who have just schemed the surface on Distance Learning.
Novice – The trainees that have never taught distance learning or may not have developed and understanding
of online course.
Apprentice – Trainees that have taught a few online courses and are able to instruct the basic customer service
skills material.
Insider – A trainee that in comfortable with the distance online courses and feel they have proficient with the
technology that goes with distance learning.
Master – A trainee that has mastered the technology to adapt to the latest and most current instruction while
using course management systems into their course work. (Palloff & Pratt, 2011)
Transitioning between stages should be seamless and will happen at different times of each trainee. As trainees
move down the ladder of mastering each level and will transition to the next level ending at the mastery phase
level.

9. Theories of Distance Learning
Student-centric– The trainees take on increasing responsibility for what, where, when and
how they learn.
Communal Constructivism – The trainees benefits from the external community which provides the
students with a living repository of learning.
Transactional Distance – This involves three variables that administer the relationship between
trainees and students they include dialogue, program structure and learner autonomy.
Multimodality – Where education of e-Learning can be learned on desktop, laptop, tablets, and
mobile phones. The computer assess is able to encompass all of these modalities. (Palloff & Pratt, 2011)

10. THEORIES FOR ENGAGING DISTANCE LEARNERS
 Theories for engaging distance learners into being knowledgeable about the content of
material learned.
 Being able to respond to students in a timely manner so that the students know you are
acknowledging their questions and concerns. Also, keeping a timely manner of feedback so
the students know that you are working on their assignments.
 Being able to provide feedback and positive critiques while using Rubrics to explain what it is
you expect from them.

11.  Maintaining a positive environment for students to see that
learning can be fun and creative.

12. Part III – Technology Tools
Learning Management System (LMS) allows customer service skill to be developed and delivered to
training to online students by the distance learning faculty for facilitating their classes. This type of training
will be used to track and report to stakeholders. LMS is a software-based platform great for facilitating
online training.
LMS includes lectures, how to videos, virtual meeting rooms, real-time chats, student collaboration, group
projects, portals for assignments, resource assistance, memorandums of upcoming assignments, feedback,
and grades.
The LMS of choice will be the Blackboard system.

13. Identify the processes facilitators will use to do the following:
 Present information, such as lectures or videos on main course thread where students will be able to access
the information to prepare for weekly discussions and assignments.
 Course discussions will be conducted in a separate thread specifically for class discussions that all students
can access and provide input.
 Private discussions will be conduction on a thread for one-on-one discussion of problems, question and
information of a private nature only accessible between trainer and student on a one-to-one link.
 An assignment thread will be set up for student assignment submittal where trainers can receive
assignments and post feedback and grades.
 Assignment feedback and grades will be established through a one-to-one link between specific student
and trainer as a means to discuss any issues associated with assignment for clarification or grade resolution.

14. The following are four different technologies or media tools that engage and enhance student
learning:
 Audio – Podcasting, Learn out loud, Podio books provides free audiobooks that will enhance listening
and concentration skills
 Video – YouTube, Ted Presentations, Vimeo engages learner’s higher order thinking skills, video gives
1st hand account of how to projects, videos can be a catalyst for group discussions.
 Visuals /Infographics – charts, graphs, icons, graphic organizers, Piktochart, Prezi -motivates learning.
 Games/simulations– allows students to practice real world activities in an online environment

15. The following are four different technologies or media tools for student collaboration which
include the following:
 Blogs have many different tools for collaboration. One includes Corporate eLearning
Strategies and Development : Explore the crossroads of technology and learning with this
corporate learning blogger. (The Digital Learning People)
 The classroom learning platform to be used for student collaboration is Blackboard.
Blackboard provides a number of different ways for teachers
and students to collaborate and connect, all in one easy-to-use place.
 Skype, Apple® FaceTime®, or other teleconferencing tools allows you to use this tool for
free for voice and video calls combined with instant messages. Skype is one of these
programs that allow for free downloadable software.
 Mobile computing or M-Learning is the next best way to learn for students today. They can
access their mobile devices to do their collaborative exercises.

17. Part IV – Issues and Classroom Management
 Cultural Learner – Also called cultural transmission, is the way a group of people within a
society or culture tend to learn and pass on information.
 Experiential Learner – is the process of learning through experience, and is more specifically
defines as “learning through reflection on doing”. Hands-on learning is a form of
experiential learning but does not necessarily involve students reflecting on their product.
 Prior learning experiences: Nontraditional Learners – refers to a category of students at
college or universities. The term is defined as postsecondary students who are 25 yeas old
or older.
Three types of different distance learners:

19. The best environment for online learning involve three important classroom management issues
they include:
1. Feedback - Providing feedback is a very important element to online instruction. This
feedback is an irreplaceable component to a successful online course.
2. Challenging Behaviors – Coming across challenging behaviors that students may
have is an aspect of online learning that can’t be avoided.
3. Accessibility – It is very important to be prepared to need to access tools and resources
for those that may be disabled. It is a legal and a moral issue that a facilitator may have to
be aware of this issue when distance learning is used.

20. Tangible and Transparent
Goal Referenced
Tangible and Transparent
Actionable
User-Friendly
Timely
Ongoing
Consistent
Feedback should be offered according to relevance of achieving the desired goal.
Feedback should be concrete, specific, and useful; it is something that can be acted upon.
Feedback needs to be stable; Rubrics can help to ensure consistency of feedback.
Feedback is a type of formative assessment, to be truly effective, feedback needs to be followed
by opportunities to improve the performance.
Feedback should be given close to the time the event occurred for feedback.
Feedback should be clear and understandable to the student.
Feedback should capture measurable and verifiable things.
(Wiggins, 2012)
Feedback

21. Even though you are online and teaching, you will always have those students that need the extra attention. Below are some
possible controversies which you may encounter.
 Miscommunication may arise due to the fact that online
learning is predominantly text-based communications and
believe or not, there will be stereotypes and assumptions
that the facilitator can not avoid from the sender or the
receiver.
 One way to avoid this is to be alert and aware
that due to different personalities you may
experience this problem. Intervene promptly and
address the conflict directly.
Challenging Behaviors is one of the aspects that you may encounter as an instructor.
 Some students may react to some of the course material
used in the class.
 Be aware for signs of unease and emotional
language used in students posts. When dealing with
this dilemma use skype or a telephone call to assist
with this behavior.
 Because of the asynchronous online learning allows for
the chance for online conflict to erupt between
students, as a facilitator, you need to be aware a ready
to intervene when it arises.
 Set good behavioral ground rules for students to
follow which will allow for students to express
themselves but will also hamper any controversies
that may arise.
 Keep all name calling, bullying or harassment out
of the picture.
 As Facilitators, we have have to stay aware of the fact
that we have many personalities we are dealing with
and some may spark such behavior. We must keep a
look out for this behavior and enlist assistance from
administration to assist in the intervention. (Smith,
2014)

22. Accessibility
It is imperative that as online facilitators, we have a legal and a moral obligation to assist learners who face
challenges like disabilities. Guidelines and tools can be found under the Tools and Resources tab at
www.section508.gov.
There are many resources acessible to such students, but those students may be unaware how to access them. It
is up to you, the facilitator, to assist them with their inquiries.
Conclusion
This course is designed to assist trainees into become refined online facilitators. To pursue
what they have always wanted to be; the best facilitator possible. Trainees should have
questions which will arise because every scenario is different. You need to reach out to your
mentors, peers and other instructors to help you gather what questions you have not been
able to ask. Those referenced throughout this journey will help to guide you through the
path of distance learning and help you to strive to be the best you can be in your domain.

23. References
Caballe, S., Xhafa, F., Barolli, L. (January, 2010). Using Mobile Devices to Support Online Collaborative Learning. Research Gate. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220056796_Using_Mobile_Devices_to_Support_Online_Collaborative_Learning
Cultural learning - Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_learning
Experiential learning - Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_learning
Ferlazzo, L. (December 6, 2014). Response: The Best Ways To Engage Students In Learning. Education Week. Retrieved from
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2014/12/response_the_best_ways_to_engage_students_in_learning.html
Haslam, J. (June 29, 2014). Synchronous vs. asynchronous classes. Retrieved from: http://www.elearners.com/online-education-resources/degrees-and-
programs/synchronous-vs-asynchronous-classes/
Haythornthwaite, C. (April, 2011). E-learning Theory and Practice. Sage Publications Ltd (UK).VitalBook file.
Lann, K. (n.d.). 11 Essential Tools for Better Project – Based Learning. Teachthought We Grow Teachers. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/project-based-
learning/11-tools-for-better-project-based-learning/
M-Learning -Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-learning
Nontraditional student - Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontraditional_student
Palloff, R., Pratt, K. (February, 2011). The Excellent Online Instructor: Strategies for Professional Development. Jossey-Bass. VitalBook file.
Steinberg, S. (October 23, 2013). Distance Learning: Best Apps, Tools and Online Services. Huffpost. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-
steinberg/distance-learning-best-apps-tools-and-online-services_b_3805068.html
Smart Tutor. 10 Ways to Use Skype to Learn. Retrieved from http://thinkonline.smarttutor.com/10-ways-to-use-skype-to-learn/
The Digital Learning People. Top 50 Blogs for -e-Learning and Tips. Retrieved from https://toponlineuniversityreviews.com/2010/top-50-blogs-for-e-learning-tools-and-tips/

24. Keep Smiling and Enjoy
Your Day!