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Wondering how to stay on track in facilitating your online course? The Course Facilitation Plan can help! The document below has spaces for brainstorming what your approach will be to a range of actions, from welcoming students to the course to grading and consulting LMS analytics. For more help ensuring you're ready to facilitate your course, see the Course Facilitation Checklists.

Preparing to facilitate your upcoming online course? This checklist can help! With a short, specific list of actions to take just before and just after course launch, you won't have to worry that you're overlooking something important. For more help mapping out your facilitation goals, see the Course Facilitation Plan.

Online forums are valuable learning tools: they merit the time and thought it takes to create them, but they must be well-designed to be effective for instructors and students. Baker and Ahlegren (2022) note that instructors may start out with the best of intentions and a desire to achieve multiple goals, such as promoting critical thinking and fostering a community of authentic learners. However, discussion boards often become just another writing assignment, a missed opportunity to “elicit debate, inspire meaningful ideas, and fully engage . . . learner[s]” (Blakely et al., 2022, p. 3). When this happens, students can view discussions as transactional, not transformative (p. 3).

Use inclusive language across course content and communications to reach every learner. “Inclusive education must be cultivated deliberately if we want to advance in its implementation” (Márquez & Melero-Aguilar, 2022, p. 842). Inclusion entails creating an environment of open participation for all individuals. Inclusive course design works to ensure that all students feel heard, valued, and validated. The thoughtful use of language can establish an environment of inclusion in online learning.