Online Facilitation

I signed up for a Basic Facilitator Course conducted by Outward Bound Singapore recently. I learnt about the course from the OBS Alumni newletter that I have been receiving lately especially since I have been to a few different rounds of OBS (twice/thrice in Singapore and once in Sabah). It was a 'train the trainers' programme as some newly trained facilitators will get to apply their skills at another upcoming OBS alumni event. 

The course which was about 3 hours long was fairly simple and perhaps more catered to online engagement especially since in the near future more of those would be required. The main facilitator Rawwington used tools like Mentimeter as well as the Zoom annotation functions well to elicit responses and interact with the participants. Some responses were even obtained pre-event through a WhatsApp group where templates were created and everyone copied and pasted the text to share their opinions.

We discussed what it means to facilitate and were also introduced to the Experiential Learning Cycle (somehwat similar to Kolb's). The conversations we had on how physical engagements differed from online engagement revolved around the detachment from physical cues and body language as well as the affordances of online technology to get engagement.

In the breakout rooms, which were facilitated by young undergraduates (Leadership & Service Award holders) we had some hands-on practice on the kind of visual aids (slides or media) to be used for online engagement.

We also took turns to play 'games' or more accurately give instructions for others to know how to best play such online games. We had to lay out how to pass the time from one participant to another. We also practised asking closed (yes/no) questions and then open-ended questions to guess an item in a complex image. It made me reflect on the habits which people generally have to ask closed-ended questions and to proactively use open-ended questions to get better responses. This is why teachers have to develop strong facilitation skills especially in our role as facilitators of learning.

This next few weeks will also be exciting as I will be part of the 7th Singapore-Brunei Youth Leaders Exchange Programme, a bilateral programme that is testimony to the close diplomatic ties between our two countries. I hope to share more when the opportunity arises.