Kenyan ICT CFT Course Online Facilitator Training

-Greet all on board and those who have already participated

- cool down tembers by first apologising for not being available as the chat began

- take a portion of the blame and apologise for the situation at hand

- remind members the need to allow others to participate during a chat session to qualify it as a discussion/chat other than a one sided show

- remind members the need to accomodate others weaknesses in a courteous manner and giving corection in a brotherly/sisterly manner

- stress the need for resolving our differences and moving on as a team

- welcome them all on board

I will acknowledge seeing the post by writing on the forum without being judgemental to reassure the participant.

Privately through Email, text message or skype, I would contact the participant and try to guess his feeling and the reason for being irritated.

I would express my feeling towards his outburst and let him know I was not out to change his thought but would be interested if he would take time to reflect on the impact of his posting.

I will start by acknowledging seeing the message in public and indicate my displeasure of washing dirty linen in public and since no one was named in the post I will request members not to respond to it. There's also a possibility that the situation is still under control as conflict has not yet erupted. I will then contact the person directly who had posted and the message through either of the following means Whatsapp, skype, email or even making a call but not on the platform. The reason being to avoid giving out the said dominators names in public which might cause public outcry. I will try to find out who has offended him/her, why he/she feels offended what should be done for him to feel/become ok. Then we will revisit the rules on the chatiquette which cautions us not to post personal issues on the forum. I will then advice him/her in case of such issues he should feel free to contact me personally and not on the platform.  

I will then lead the class to review the chatiquette and also give them my direct contacts incase one has an issue should use to voice it. 

First thing to do is to apologize for being late. I will then take the blame of not being online in time, then acknowledge the participants contributions and remind them of respecting one another in terms of diverse abilities and opinions among many others including tempo. Since no one had commented or reacted to it, ask them not to. Give the complainant assurance that you will attend to his/her concern. Through the other tools of communication, preferably personal email account, try to understand the member's concern in depth through questions. Give him/her your feeling by being sorry for delaying to comment on the issue in time.

I will apologise for being late. I will comfort the student that I understand her frustration for feeling left out in the course of the discussion. I will encourage her to post even when she feels she has been left out that her points a long with others will be captured, that she is doing well and that it is the quality of points posted that matter not how fast they are posted that matters. Lastly, I will tell her she is doing perfect and she should not worry.

I would post  a friendly advisory message to the forum that runs like this:

 

Dear participants,

It is almost one week since the course commenced. We have to agree that all of us have learned a lot from one another. I have realized that nobility of any discussion is to give each and every one of us a chance to reflect and express his view to the forum without any prejudice.

 

However we should be alive to the following:

1)      Each and every one of us is unique in his or her way and therefore we should celebrate our diversity.

2)      And because we are all not the same, we should not expect any of us to behave similarly.

3)      Let us use discussion forums to express our noble ideas but not to judge abilities of other participants.

4)      I am encouraging you to contact me any time you experience any problem. Otherwise keep it up! You are making it!

 

After this communication, I as the facilitator should then communicate to the offended through his/her private e-mail to get more insights of his/her dissatisfaction. If I feel his/her concerns are valid, I should privately communicate to the offender and advise him/her to be always friendly in their postings.

I will break the ice by a greeting message. I will proceed to submit my apology for being late in the discussion.

Afterwards, I wild let participants to internalise the post given by this participant. Meanwhile, I contact the exact participant directly to hear his or her position towards this post. After getting the logic in him or her directly say through whatsaap or skyping, I would be back to the online community and lead the discussion that the post is a general one and nobody is mentioned. I would proceed by reminding the participants that all should have a voice and their opinions are respected. However they should mind other peoples feelings before posting. The chat ettiquatte can be reviewed at this point to restore order.

The first thing is post in the forum and acknowledge seeing the post and let them know that the situation is being handled. This will reduce tension in the group, in the mean time, reach or contact the participant who posted the post to listen to them and their views and why the comment. Together with the participant we would then revisit the chat ettiquette guidelines that were laid down before the beginning of the chat. If we find that any of the guidelines have been violated, i would request the participant to apologize to the other participants.

As a course facilitator, i will contact the participant privately through either email ,skype etc and appreciate their voices and contributions  in the discussion and remind them to consider giving others the space to also air their views and that discussion is not about an individual but the whole group.

Another way can be allocating the amount of responses per individual per discussion.But the most important of all is to let the participants know that every one counts in the discussion and it is therefore imperative to give space  for everyone to be heard.

This is kind if tricky since its the first week most probably you dont have a clear picture of the participants.

Since twenty minutes have passed and there has been no comment i will take advantage of that. I will contact the participant in question. I will reassure him/her of his/her performance in their previous posts. Assure him/er that its the quality of the post not the quantity.

After that i will now post on the forum and assure the participants that everything is under control. In the process i wil pass the message that we are diverse in may ways. And our availability may vary depending on our commitments in life;as long as one communicates and posts and contribute then they are still on board.

I would have to break the silence as the leader and initiate a friendly discussion by tying to bring out to all the participants and making them understand that we in an open forum and everyone can free discuss issues and at the same time it is important not to blame anyone for our conditions. I would point out that it is not a must for everyone to do as we expect them to do to us. Therefore the focus should be our discussions and understand that just as the writer has stated we have no control over each person’s response and” we stay in Giraffe state no matter what the other person says. If she or he seems upset or tense, we switch into listening, which allows us to hear the person’s feelings, needs and wishes without hearing any criticism of ourselves.”

It is also important to make the participant understand that his/her posts was wrong but stating and verifying the reason as to why it is wrong and in this way the participant will understand the wrong side of the point.

I would write a reply like;

Thanks for your efforts this far. Your determination in the course will yield greatly.

I have noted your great concern about group members. As part of this team, I wish to acknowledge the fact that we are all different in many aspects. We have those who like being right in front of the class and those who sit at the back. The same scenario is observed here.

As we are all collaborating towards achieving the same goal, our need to continue cooperating is still necessary. It is hard to have everyone move at the same speed or make equal number of posts but I encourage you to do your best. Your participation is quite commendable, keep trying.

To avoid unnecessary conflict, I suggest we make amendments to your post.

• Definitely the offended will be in possession of information on who might be be looking down upon the 'slow-to-comment' calling them 'lurkers'. I will try to handle this offline by engaging both the offended and the offenders. I will let the offended know that their quality discussion matters a lot and could be the best, contrary to those bragging of being fast. while still offline, if I am given those disturbing others, I will point to them that it's not proper to do that. I will firmly tell them never to do that again.
• after agreeing offline, I will then do a post condemning such behavior, advice all participants to toe the line by following the laid down rules on discussion. 

One need to remember and understand you are dealing with normal people and hence control the group dynamic to death. As the leader one need to assert themselves and let them know why you are the leader. lead by example by being in the discussion and visible daily or regularly.

Remember this is your baby (forum) you dreamt it up and set it up and hence one need to take to the other level. Allow the other members discuss and finally give your direction assertively by reminding them the guidelines and the course requirements.

Greetings to all.I see this as a case of individual differences that exist among learners which a course leader need to address.This is a good learner who first need to be appreciated for sharing on the concern and go ahead to explain to others on the need to observe guidelines to be agreed upon by all learners.

Please find my response.

Wow! Kind of interesting.

First, greet the participants and acknowledge the post as seen by most of the participants.

Being a reflection forum tell them this is a good reflection on this participant's part and we respect it. However, acknowledge the fact that we are different since some of us are born extroverts and so are very outspoken and some are introverts and so are kind of laid back.

Remind them to respect people's virtual space and avoid offensive language or words that tend to reprimand others since the forum is for educative purpose.

Lead them once more to what the forum is expected for and how such personal issues should be approached if there are.

Encourage them to approach you individually in case there are cases of misunderstandings rather post on the forum.

If other participants have not seen  I would consult with him online and ask him to delete the post as we discuss and see how the problem can be solved

- I would establish whether the allegations are true or not by going through the discussion again. This way I would be able to know who is being accused although the complainant has not mentioned anyone's name.

- Once that is established I would call the attention of the participants to the fact that the allegations that have been made are sensitive and that they reflect a developing strain in the healthy relationship participants have been having. 

- I would then remind participants that people have different personalities and that there is nothing wrong with one taking time, while another contributes promptly in a discussion. 

- I would then review the chatiquettes and emphasize the importance of adhering to them in order to maintain a healthy relationship among participants. 

- I would also encourage those who feel personally attacked in discussions to privately get in touch with me.

Since this was a private message I will contact the I dividual and a sure them their contribution counts.

Then in the forum I would remind members the importance of respect of other peoples strengths and weaknesses. I will also remind them that its not their duty to gauge the other participants in the course. I will remind them to appreciate that we can not all move at the same pace through the course, hence not to be critical of those that lag behind in different activities.

I would salute the online family, and applaud them for their continued online presence and contributions for the whole week long. I would then, suggestively to encourage them, ask them to keep the fire burning!

I would then with a twist acknowledge and note the particular "seemingly eruptive post",  pointing out its generalization, although a potential source for unwarranted conflict due to diverse misinterpretations.

I would then remind members that just as agreed earlier on at the beginning of the course, that I have always encouraged participants to contact me whenever there are any concerns to raise or if they experience any problems in the course and need assistance.

I would then beseech all members to exercise a bit of tolerant on each other and restrain from utterances that are likely to cause jitters among members. Reinforce the need to accommodate  each others' flaws/weaknesses as a family and realize that we may not have similar qualities, as human beings are not the same.

Bring to the attention of all members the guidelines governing chat-etiquette (Relevance, Respect,Group-family, Peace, courtesy,) while emphasizing non-violation any of them as well as the need to consider and appreciate other peoples' feelings before making any controversial posts.

Privately contact the poster of the "seemingly eruptive post" to find out from them whom they consider " the really loud students who like to dominate discussions and then have the nerve to call those of us who prefer to observe and reflect a bit,before participating, lurkers"

Ask them to be tolerant as the course is accommodative  of all paces of the participants.

Before breaking the ice, I would first want to listen to the tone beneath the words since this will help me to understand what the student is really saying, why the issue has come up and why at this particular time. Having analyzed the situation, I would want to address it on two dimensions.

1. First, it may be that some students really did dominate the discussion giving others no time to contribute.
2. It may be a case of an unprepared student who wants to blame others for lack of contribution to the discussion or who always lays in wait for others in order to contribute

 Having done that, I would then break the ice by calling the attention of everyone in the group in a bid to break the tension that is already building and protect all the members, in particular the student who has generated the hot moment

The strategy I would employ is to ask all students to seek to understand each other’s views and personalities as a prerequisite to understanding the issue at hand. I would take the issue of the student who has made such an offensive remark and put it on the table as a topic for general discussion. Additionally, I would say something like, “Some students think that others are dominating the forum. Why do they hold such views?” Then, “why do those who disagree that there is no dominating hold other views?” This strategy in my opinion protects the student who sent the offensive post, while also encouraging others who are being ‘branded’ domineering to understand the other students’ point of view then to argue their position later.

  This discussion would create for me a perfect opportunity to deal with the ‘discussion-dominating student’, at the same time dealing with the ‘lurkers’ as well as revisiting the rules of netiquette to the class. I expect that this will cool temperatures and will be a win-win situation for all.

 As a follow-up activity, I would talk to both groups of students separately after class. The ones being accused and the one accusing. I would try to help them learn something practical from the experience about themselves, about others, about possible positions and above all about how to voice their thoughts so that they can be heard, even by those who disagree with their views without to provoking each other.

Join the chat by greeting the participants, then break the ice by making a simple joke to calm people's nerves. I will follow it up by reminding the members of chat ettiqete and the need to accomodate each others views and also why it was important for every member to make an effort to contribute towards a given discussion topic. Highlight the importance of tolerance and need to accomodate people opinion.

Later on, I will follow-up on the issue privately through whatsapp or email with the agrieved party who posted the comment to explain how he/she had affected others and the need to withdraw from the same in future.

First I'''ll greet them and apologize for my lateness. Then I'll go through the messages to ascertain the reason for the problem, I'll then communicate to the offended one in private and give her a chance to explain herself. I'll then tell her in a polite way that it is always good to participate and if she feels someone has offended her, she should try and solve the issue amicably with that person and not post it for all to see. Then I'll also talk to the one who offended and also give her a chance to talk then I''ll also tell her that if she feels someone isn't doing the right thing then she should talk talk to them in a good way so that they can all come to an agreement. hen I'll ask her to remove that post and apologize to the others. Then I'll ask them in case they do not come to an agreement they can always  contact the facilitator. Then I''ll remind all of the the chatiquette and encourage them to learn to cope with one another and respect each other.

i would respond on middle ground.like - colleagues any suggestions here. have we gone over board.