Ongoing Conversations
Facilitator Forum
Engaging Weekly Openings posted every week in the Facilitator Forum give you the perfect opportunity to highlight the content for the module ahead and relate it to your participants in an engaging way. This is the perfect opportunity to connect the content of the coming week with that of the previous weeks. Your personal examples and stories are both appropriate and expected in your Weekly Opening. According to Helen Love, research shows that stories help participants grasp information more quickly and retain it longer than facts alone (2008). Creating personal connections, telling stories, and providing real-life examples puts flesh on the bones of an online course. Craft your weekly openings with care and save them for repeated revision and use.
Messages
While conversations that take place on the main forums are critical to the flow of learning in any online course, private conversations between the facilitator and participants are equally important. Supporting, Approval, and Empathy Statements are especially effective in these individual communications.
Messages allow you to communicate with students without being intercepted by spam/privacy blockers on their regular email. Messages also allow students to keep their course-related contacts separate from their regular email accounts.
Remind students that messages are the best way to contact you during a course and also the way you will contact them.