Lessons Learnt from...My First Facilitation Session.

The week I played the role of the facilitator in the Facilitating Online Teaching Course.

I was required to respond to the asynchronous discussion board and facilitate a synchronous Wimba session. I have to say I enjoyed the discussion board experience. I felt confident that I could keep a constant instructor presence, be responsive, ask questions to encourage further depth of concepts, be supportive and provide information and links to valuable information. However,...The idea of the Wimba session, I found daunting.

What is it about being in charge of a Wimba session that made me so nervous? I have been in charge of classrooms, and given presentations to my peers. Maybe it was my inexperience with the subject matter that threw me. My plan to do extensive research was sound, but it was obvious to me that my nerves were in high gear.

None-the-less, I finished the session and learned valuable lessons from the experience. My topic was Common Problems in Online Teaching. My research yielded solutions from experts on problem students, university policies, and class preparation tools to head off problems.

Having a great deal so of content to address, my presentation was in a lecture format for the first half of class. The second half was interactive with a question and answer session. If I had to do it all over again, I would have made the first half more interactive.

From this experience, I found that interacting with the class is even more important in Wimba sessions. These discussions enable the facilitator to gauge whether students are engaged in the content. In addition, I found by the end of the session being nervous was unnecessary. As long as you prepare, you will be in good shape. The Wimba class facilitation requires many of the same skills as the face to face classroom.

I am glad I had the opportunity to lead a class on Wimba. While the facilitation class prepares students by exposing them to the skills and tools necessary, there is not substitute for actually jumping in and teaching a class on Wimba.

Lessons learnt, I cannot wait to teach a class on Wimba in my chosen field.