Teaching Styles Blog: Facilitator Style

This is the fifth in a series of blog posts examining online instructor teaching styles through the lens of Anthony Grasha’s (1994) typology. This post focuses on the facilitator style and how both course developers and instructors can embody this style in online courses.

The facilitator teaching style involves frequent and substantive instructor-student interaction. Instructors with this teaching style guide students through the learning process, asking questions and providing consultative feedback and direction, allowing students to develop their capacities for independent action. While asynchronous online courses might not appear conducive to this teaching style, there are numerous possibilities for creating and sustaining an interactive dynamic online. To successfully implement the facilitator style in your course, select from the strategies and considerations below and thread them throughout your course development and instruction.

• You can use on-screen text, documents, or videos to give online students the same guidance you would provide students in a face-to-face course. As you plan how you would like to provide this guidance, consider both the optimal timing and appropriate format for the information. Regarding timing, guidance is most useful when it is immediately relevant and applicable (e.g., when an assignment is first introduced). Regarding format, information that students need to frequently and easily reference, as well as information routinely subject to change, is best presented in writing. On the other hand, videos can be preferable for demonstrating your approach to a particular task or explaining fundamental concepts within your discipline.
• In addition to providing information to students, consider how you will receive information from students. Brief quizzes, surveys, and reflections can be strategically placed throughout your course to provide insight into students’ thinking about course material and assignments. Instructors can use this information to offer targeted guidance and support to students as the course unfolds.
• Establishing checkpoints throughout an online course can help ensure that students are making adequate progress toward course goals and are receiving support and feedback from instructors when needed. For example, you might plan for the submission of paper or project topics, outlines, and/or drafts as you develop your course. When such submissions occur well in advance of final deadlines, instructors have the opportunity to provide strategic support, guiding students toward more successful final submissions.
• Discussion forums offer not only valuable opportunities for students to engage with each other, but also for faculty to support meaningful dialogue through a selection of discussion prompts and participation in the discussion board. To these points, you might consider providing guidance for future instructors on how they might participate in the discussion forums you’ve built into the course (e.g., suggesting that they respond to exemplary posts within the forums, share their own takes on the prompts, and note common themes or questions in course announcements).
• For all kinds of assignments, consider how you might best support instructors in delivering productive and timely feedback to students. Rubrics can be highly useful in this regard, as they clarify expectations and evaluation criteria for both students and instructors and can make grading more consistent and efficient. You might also offer guidance to future instructors on delivering written feedback to students, supplying them with sample comments or providing a rubric scoring key.

• Posting announcements throughout your course allows you to give timely and targeted guidance to students. Announcements can contain not only written information but also audio or video content, file attachments, and links, allowing you to share a broad range of resources with your students. For example, you might post weekly reminders about assignment due dates and expectations, accompanied by helpful resources or examples for students to consult. You might also post recent articles or videos related to course topics, with some guiding language about how students could benefit from reviewing those materials.
• Depending on the structure of the course, you may find some pre-established opportunities for structured interaction with your students, such as checkpoint assignments or discussion forums. You can also create opportunities for structured interaction by encouraging students to attend virtual office hours or providing students with the option to sign up for individual consultation sessions —both of which can be especially helpful prior to major assignment submissions. Sending out student surveys to gauge interest and engagement as well as points of confusion can help you gather the information you need to facilitate the course most effectively.
• Relatedly, you may need or have the option to host synchronous sessions. Face-to-face meetings allow instructors to offer guidance and recommendations, answer questions, demonstrate processes, and hear directly from students how the course is going for them. If you are holding a synchronous group meeting, consider recording to allow students who cannot attend to benefit from the session.
• Grading offers another opportunity for meaningful course facilitation. In reviewing assignments, consider how you can set students up for continued success in the course (noting where they have done well and where they might improve, recommending resources, and so on). You might stress that feedback is not one-directional, encouraging students to reach out with questions or concerns or to schedule meetings in advance of future assignments.