Kenyan ICT CFT Course Online Facilitator Training

A student who has been left can be reached through indivindual email or a call if necessary. Anopther possible way would be to post a genral reminder on the noticeboard without mentioning names. And better still active members can be used to trace inactive mebers as friends in the course

I will get in touch with the student and enquires on the challenges we could be facing. This I can do through text messaging, calling and Email. All possible means of communication should be explored to get into contact with the student. There could be technical problem where the learner has completed a task yet on the facilitator platform there are no signs of completed work, therefore the need to establish personal communication with the student.

In this case, I will remind learners on the importance of completion of all the units. This I will post on the public forum like WhatsAp or face book. Then to the individual participant, I will use text message through his/her phone, use personal email account as well as personal WhatspAp account. Here, I will be able to ask the students the reasons as to why he/she hasn't completed the work. From that point I will then encourage by assuring support, then keep on following up.

Avenues for Communication

There are quite avenues open for communication to a student  who is falling behind in an online course. General comments to all students not to lag behind can be communicated via facebook, whatsapp, news forum, general email to all online participants, group communication and collaboration spaces.

Encouragement

- Provision of timely feedback- this encourages focus by participants and commitment hence they are likely to catch up

- Include constructive and personalised feedback and assignments it indicates her learning matters

- Craft a weekly message in a form of a text or video message and post to the course home page- It shows instructor is indeed involved in the course

- Commend strategically within discussion boards making note of insightful or notable comments made by the student

The question talks about two things firstly communicate and secondly to encourage participation.

communication

we have several means of communicating. I will start by commenting generally on whatsapp that we should all be up to date in covering the units. If no change I will then single out the number of participants who are involved without divulging their details and names. If the problem still persists I will contact them directly the involved parties through their direct contacts whatsapp or emails and if they don't I will have to call them to find out what problem they might have encountered. If I can assist I will do it through advice and if I can't I will escalate the issue to the authority for further advice.(e.g denied permissions, fed up with the course/not interested and so on)

Encouragement

I will talk to them about the importance of completing the course and guide them through  their difficulties.

I will also heed to some of their demands like the allowed time of expansion on some submissions to be made up to the required limit of days.

I will also give advice on some issues if for example they are experiencing technical issues I give advice accordingly.(e.g. compatibility of their gadgets with what they are downloading, what they can do , upgrades they might have to do and so on )

A student may fall behind due to a number of reasons some of which may include:

• Having a tight schedule running interndemly with the online course her/she is pursuing.
• Falling sick and therefore interfering with his/her regular completion of tasks and assignments.
• Finding a lot of difficulty in handling a specific topic on study.
• Experiencing some technical problems with the ICT devices and network.
• or just deciding to lazy around among other reasons.

whichever the reason for lugging behind, the facilitator must always try to reach the concerned participant through a private communication tool e.g. personal e-mail and remind him/her that he/she was far much behind from the expected schedule of the course and also from the rest of the colleagues.

secondly, the facilitator should be keen to know from the participant any challenge that he/she had experienced as far as course completion is concerned. at this juncture, the facilitator should come handy with the most appropriate mechanism that would enable the participant to come from the state of falling behind and continue with the course with a protracted zeal.

• on the same note, it is pretty well to post a general communication to all the participants either through group /what’sUp, facilitator-participants forums, and/or group e-mails, reminding them of the expected time by which they should have completed the topic or unit. With the same zeal acknowledge those who are on schedule and timely with their progress. However this general communication should not mention names of either those who have or not completed the specific topic.

What avenues are open to you to firstly communicate?

There are a number of avenues:-

• I can use moodle to put reminders of work that needs to be done
• Use of moodle to set deadlines of when certain work should be done
• Use moodle to send Messages to the participant to remind him or her of activities that need to be done
• Use email to send a message to him or her
• Use social media like WhatsApp to send a one on one message or send a general message to all members reminding them of activities that need to be done and by what time they need to be done.

Then encourage participation?

Before i encourage i would use the various platforms, i have mentioned to try and know the reason for the lagging behind. We then collaborate and see the way forward or how to catch up with the rest. Also how as a facilitator i can assist to help them catch up with the rest faster.

Online learning is very different  in many ways from learning in a physical classroom and since it might be first learning using the online moodle platform they might be faced out with a number  of challenges  and this might make one to fall behind in task completion.

As their facilitator i will use some of these avenues to constantly highlight what is required.some of these avenues include;

• Group and individual email
• whatsup both individual and group
• placing a call to individuals
• instant messaging to individual and group

I will encourage the the participant by offering praises to tasks already completed and talk to him/her about the value of completing work within a specified paced time and re affirm to the participant/participants the importance of completing the course.

it is very important to keep in touch with the participants who are lagging behind in the following ways:

i would contact him/her personally through email,social media or even call the participant. This will actually motivate the participant a great deal.

during the contact time with the participant i will try to find out what the problem or challenge is and offer help as i can.

we proposed introduction of badges. These would really motivate the participants not to lag behind.

i would also make sure that i have graded and uploaded the marks for the assignments done in time and then this could encourage the participant.

I start by explaining the goals of the course and let them understand what they are expected to do in every stage. I would also keep track of that individual learner for to see what they need and give timely feedback to see if they catch up with the other. if not I would privately contact them to know whether they are experiencing any challenges for me to know how best I can assist.

I will send an email. I wil state that !ave observed that s/he is being left behind and that am realy concerned. I wil go ahead and ask a reply telling me the reason why. If i dont get a reply after 24hrs depending on the time of the week,i wil go ahead and contact the individul and get to the bottom of it all.

And in the process encourage and help where possible

First communicate in the forum that others are falling behind following the time schedule given earlier and what was to be covered by when.  Provide members with a checklist for them to check on their progress and if there are, encourage them using badges. This will be a great motivation at least it has worked for me in this course.

Using the block messages tool, congratulate all for their active participation  in the activities of the course.

Use the tool to inform them that they have spent x days in the course and that y days remain before the time allocated for course is completed.

Remind them that by now they should be in activity z.

Then offline, contact the participants who are behind and encourage/urge them to create more time in order to catch up.  

Advise them not to hesitate airing any challenges drawing them back.

• Place a general message on the facilitators communication notifying members on specific units where the lags may have occurred and ask members to check their coverage
• Ask participants to assist find out the member lagging behind's challenges
• personal emailing, text messaging, whatsapp, or even make a phone call. This might assist in finding out reasons for lagging behind, the find out the remedy on the same.

As a facilitator ensure that your are present online to stimulate debates, offer ideas and offer resources need to help in the learning. Individual emails and/or calls are effective ways to rope in absent learners.

I would get in touch with the participant individually via e mail, telephone call or other personal means, with an intention of establishing what challenges he is facing with the course. I would then give guidance to the participant and later encourage everybody to participate through the forum accessible to all participants.

There are several evenues to communicate to the affected participants inline to the question. Some of them include:

Under the facilitators communication tool within the moodle, you can give a general reminder to the participants of what activity they are expected to  be tackling at the time. Once this is done you can now go personal.

Write personal email to the concerned participants to remind them that they need to double their effort to catch up with the others. In the same mail, encourage them to share their challenges as to why they are falling.Within the online community, suggest possible solution. The same should be passed to the affected participants.If no feedback for this mail, probably the participant is out of network- try direct calling or use their colleagues to reach them.

A group email will also make all participants to remember of the activity(ies) they are supposed to be doing at that particular time. Remind them to monitor the 'activity completion tool' for smooth progress.Unless there are adverse challenges, encourage them to soldier on.Skyping, twitting and even google hangout can be used to reach the subject participants.

Avenues open to communication:

There is need for constant communication and follow-ups of participants progress in the course so as to read signs of falling behind early enough to control the situation.

Firstly, I would post general reminders on the public forum ( common group-communication forum) for members to ensure they are up-to-date with their activities and submissions, without mentioning names.

Secondly, I would advocate for collaboration among members to check on each other, (neighboring colleagues and friends) to help keep each other on course. Each others' brothers' keeper to trace the whereabouts of fellow participants.

I would also establish a personal contact/communication with respective participants affected, through their individual contacts: phone numbers to call or send text messages, email, Whats App, whichever is applicable so as to inquire and establish what challenges the participant is encountering, which are slowing down their progress.

Avenues to encourage participation:

I would then encourage and remind the participants the importance of completion of all activities and units of the course within the scheduled time.

I would also offer continued support to keep the participant(s) on board, active and going. This would include being a bit flexible with the affected participant(s) and allowing a bit of time expansion on the submissions to be made.

First is to make general comments encouraging each participant to try and complete the scheduled activities within the stipulated time, e.g. a unit per week

Provide a checklist that shows the different activities and their expected completion time

Communicate to individual learners who are lagging behind through individual messages, emails, etc

Clearly stating the objectives of the course and the expectations from the participants so as to be considered as having completed the course

Keep reminding the learners weekly assignments or the content to be covered within a given time

Discussing challenges that could be facing particular participants and encouraging them to soldier on

 Avenues open for communicaton in Moodle.

The avenues include:

1. Use Moodle to send messages to the whole class on the forum
2. Use private mail to remind the student of the areas not yet covered.
3. I can use the group emails too or the whatsapp group to send general messages about completion of the course to all members.

Encouraging Participation:

After establishing the reasons for lagging behind I would work  with the learner to come up with modalities that would enable him/her complete the work. 

For Example:

• Creating time by rescheduling her/his daily program to accommodate a few hours to tackle the course content.
• Encouraging the student to subscribe to notifications on the moodle so that this can act as a reminder in case he has not done the work. Notifications of other peoples completed work can work as a reminder indirectly.- once you see an email of another persons contribution, you will be challenged to make your contribution too. 
• Work with the facilitator to come up with ways of collaborating with other students so as to chart a way he/she will catch up with the rest.catch up with the rest. Also how as a facilitator I can assist to help them catch up with the rest faster.

If the participant is lagging behind I can

I can send use collaboration network to communicate with participant

-send a message using the moodle messaging

I can email the participant alerting him or her about the timeline

Remind him or her of the timeline and the course expectation

Appreciate any effort done by the participant

Send an email to the participant asking them if there is any problem

First and foremost, I would deploy the use of Moodle Messaging facility, to encourage and motivate the student lagging behind. Secondly, I would make a follow-up by sending him an SMS through his mobile phone and back it up with an email and a whatsapp message to increase avenues of accessibility of the information. 

In our one-on-one interaction, I would earnestly enquire reasons behind the Lag whether tis:

• Social
• Technical
• Managerial or
• Pedagogical

And offer relevant way forward.

I'll communicate privately to the student either through text messaging, whatsapp, email or messenger and try to find out the reason why he/she is lagging behind. Then I'll be able to advise him/ her accordingly and encourage them all generally to complete their work in time.

participants need to be encouraged. Falling back might not be a participants making. as one of us has said try to find ways of getting to such participants either by way of putting news feed so that he/she can see others are far a head.