Five competences to develop to facilitate hybrid sessions

I get quite a few invitations for workshops on facilitating hybrid sessions. Hybrid sessions are with a group in the room and a few (or many!) online. During our blended learning course in collaboration with Kessels and Smit Belgium we experimented quite a bit: with methods do I use in a hybrid session? engaging participants in different ways and different setups from everyone online on the beamer to 'heads on a laptop'. It is really not easy. I think I have 3 sessions I felt good about, all the others left me really puzzled. What do you need to successfully guide a hybrid session? In this blog I will discuss the competencies of the hybrid trainer or process facilitator.

Don't underestimate the challenge of hybrid

After several hybrid sessions, I have learned that you should certainly not underestimate what hybrid demand from the facilitator. However, not only the facilitator is challenged: it demands a lot from everyone: the online participants and the participants in the room. At one of the first sessions I started out hopeful with the following quote:

"A good hybrid session combines the best of both world: online and live"

After 4-5 meeting I my perception changed. Live and online have their advantages from the point of view of the facilitator. In a live session you can focus on the room and the energy in the room. During an online session, you can conveniently use the chat or other online tools. With hybrid sessions, however, you can't use either benefit. It is a new form that demands that the facilitator is a sort of centipede. The facililtator must divide attention across the room and online. This feels like you should have eyes in your back. You are also highly dependent on technology. In one hybrid session, I was so busy getting everything right that I couldn't chat informally with the participants before the start of the session. This felt like a real loss because I like to start building connections before the session. 

"For some in the room it is quite demanding to be a buddy with an online person. You have to pay more attention to the chat and the screen and multitasking. Others find it very easy and have fun"

Hybrid sessions demand a lot from participants and you have to manage that as a facilitator. A hybrid session is exhausting for the people who participate online. Perhaps the sound not 100%. You often don't know whether or not you can break in to ask a question. But discussion may also feel less spontaneous for people in the room. When you agree to raise your hand, it feels like school. People online may request that people in the room don't touch papers or coffee cups for the noise. All this may cause the fun to wear off, and you as the facilitator have to deal with all these deceptions. 

Competencies of the hybrid facilitator

Not every facilitator and teacher is looking forward to hybrid... With the pandemic they learned to work online, and they are happy with another new thing. And they are right! It's not easy. However, I do think hybrid is here to stay. So sooner or later you will have to embrace hybrid. You better start getting good at it. 

There are many tips and tricks for a hybrid meeting on the internet, but which competencies do you need to develop? (Competences are a combination of knowledge, skills, attitude and/or personal characteristics/personal qualities). The following five competencies are important from my experience:

1. Choose the right technical set-up
2. Organize collaboration
3. Design your session with hybrid methods (and elaborating it in a script)
4. Facilitate with an eye for the needs of the room and online
5. Improvise

  

Photo Monique van den Hout 

  1. Choose the right technical set-up

There are different ways of organizing the technical set up. Do you work with your own equipment, for example speakerphones or a meeting owl? Then you probably already know how it works. Sometimes you have to work with the (unfamiliar to you) technical set-up in a room. Are you satisfied with the equipment? Do you have enough time to test it or test it beforehand? 

We distinguish three different main setups: 

• onliners on the beamer
• laptop heads (see photo)
• everyone behind the laptop and log in. 

Only through experience with these different forms you will get comfortable and be able to make the best choice that suits the session. Are you not that experienced yet? Then start with a simple setup, for example the equipment that is already present, or a laptop head. And don't forget to test! Or even better: make sure you organize help. 

2. Organize collaboration

I regularly facilitate hybrid meetings with a facilitator. An online and a live facilitator. In the collaboration with Belgium, participants had the choice to participate in Antwerp, Utrecht or online. We even had 3 facilitators. 

“A hybrid session requires multiple roles”

In a hybrid session there are extra tasks compared to a 'normal' live session. Think of monitoring the online group, making sure there are breakouts, walking around with laptops. It is nice if you can divide these tasks amongst various persons. If you do not have the luxury to have a co-facililtator, you can appoint an online contact person. Or work with buddies between people in the room and online. In universities there is sometimes a student assistant who helps with the online group.

Do you have the luxury of having a co-facilitator? If one is online and one in the room it works perfect. It is even nicer if the online facilitator is at a location close by, for example a room adjacent to the group. It allows you to set up the room together and quickly tune in during the break. Also think about how you will work together during the session. Do you call each other during the break or do you text each other?

3. Design your session with hybrid methods

Facilitators and trainers are very strong in methods. You can translate almost any method into a hybrids version. However, you need to keep an eye at the overall balance of working separately (the onliners together and the people in the room together) and joint. 

Questions to consider are: if you are going to work in groups, are you going to mix? And if so, how do you ensure that there are no annoying loud beeps (tip: create breakout groups)? This also requires experience. 

Are you a starter? Work in two different groups: the people in the room and the onliners. It is easier for both groups because they can ignore the others. You have to make a very detailled scripts. An example of a detail: who will mute the online group if they start working together? What do we do during the breaks? Pay attention to the nitty gritty.

4. Facilitate with an eye for the needs of the room and online

You have your session script. Now the day itself. You are probably in the room. Always keep the people in the room and online in mind. It helps if the onliners are also clearly visible. If you work with an online facilitator you can occasionally switch to your co-facilitator. 

"If you participate online, it's nice if you have an overview of the room"

Make sure the technical setup and etiquette are clear at the start. Do you want onliners to raise their hands? Can they break in the discussions if they want to say something? Where do you position yourself? Regularly check everyone. Is the sound still good? Do you need an extra break?

5. Improvise

Sometimes everything is set... and something interferes with your solid plan. Your co-facilitator has COVID and now you have to set things up alone. You want to use the chat but that produces a ping sound, annoying people. You have so much experience with your own speakerphones but the bluetooth is on and they connect to two computers. You instruct people to raise hands, but the participants don't like this and get rebellious... There is a birthday cake in the room and the people who are present don't care for the people online. This requires a lot of improvisation. It helps to see hybrid as a great new challenge. Go for it! 

Tool of the month: Flipgrid app for video sharing

The tool of the month is Flipgrid, a handy app for sharing videos within a blended training or online event. It wasn't love at first sight between me and Flipgrid. The first time I tested Flipgrid I couldn't figure out how to easily invite people without the videos being public. I added everyone one by one by email and found that quite a hassle. Only later did I discover that you have to create a group and create multiple topics (to which people respond with a video) within the group. If you set up a group you can invite people very easily with a simple code. Further on in this blog post you will find an example of what such an invitation looks like. But the love has grown! I now use it regularly. A very simple way of using Flipgrid is to ask participants to introduce themselves via the app with a short video. Super easy and fun to see everyone before a meeting o workshop! 

So it takes some effort to know how Flipgrid works, but if you have mastered the tool you can do very nice things with it.

What is Flipgrid?

Flipgrid is an app in which participants can easily record and share a video message right from their smartphone. They click on a big blue button with "Add response", which gives access to the camera and microphone and off they go. What makes Flipgrid fantastic for me is that you can set how long the answer can be, eg 1 or 1.5 minutes. What's also nice is that you can comment on the videos by text. Here and here you will find two great explanatory video's. One by Richard Byrne, the other by Flipgrid. 

Three ways of using Flipgrid

1. Flipgrid to get to know each other. You can use Flipgrid before you give a training session or (online) workshop. Ask participants to share what they want to learn, or introduce themselves. As a facilitator, you have a richer feel of your participants: face, voice and learning questions. Add a light-hearted question if you like, such as 'what made you laugh out loud this week?'
2. Flipgrid for groupwork harvesting. I regularly use Flipgrid for group assignments, especially when the group is working together online for 1-3 weeks. I ask them to record a flipgrid video with their harvest in 1 minute. It helps the group condense their findings. I will show the videos during the (online) meeting. This way the presentations don't get boring and I know exactly how long it will take. You can make use of Flipgrid's mixtapes which is a feature which allows you to show a number of videos in a row via one link. 
3. Flipgrid for presentation skills. You can of course use Flipgrid to practice presentation skills. I used it to let participants practice a pitch. The advantage of Flipgrid is that participants can re-record as many times as they want. I showed the pitches during a live online session. All participants gave positive feedback and tips via the chat, but you can of course also ask to give feedback online in Flipgrid, or give feedback yourself as a trainer.

Example Flipgrid instruction

How can you share your story?

1. Download the Flipgrid app from the app store: Android or Apple You will be asked for a flip code. The code is: 34xx5z
2. Follow the steps to record your video. Click on Add response, log in with a Microsoft or Google account and start your video.
3. Your contribution is approved by me. So don't worry if you don't see your own video right away, I'll approve it as soon as possible. If you have any questions, you can email me.

What can go wrong?

It happened to me twice that Flipgrid didn't work properly, or better said: my exercise didn't work properly. I used it once with a group that didn't know each other well and I asked a quite complicated question. There were only two responses. With another group I was eagerly looking every day at the Flipgrid app on my smartphone, but no videos appeared. What happened? Flipgrid had changed the default settings to moderation. There were contributions, but as an 'educator' I had to approve them first via the website. Unfortunately you can't turn it off. Oh yes there was a third exercise with few responses! I was depend on other to send the invitation and they sent on the day of the live session, hence we had few responses. So the lesson is to use it only when there is space and energy to invest in downloading the app and record. 

Making a clip

There is a new possibility to make a screen recording in Flipgrid: a recording of your screen as a video. You can use this feature to make a knowledge clip showing, for example, a powerpoint on your computer screen. This feature is a bit hidden but in the video below Richard Byrne explains exactly where to find it.

Translation results

What about Flipgrid and privacy? You can choose settings to guarantee privacy. For example, you can choose that only you see the videos. GDPR wise it must be clear who can see the videos and what the purpose is. It is good to delete the videos after a certain time. Personally I think it is better to use Flipgrid than Whatsapp for sharing videos. First, because you can set the time and subjects. Secondly, because with Whatsapp you cannot prevent people from receiving continuous notifications. With Flipgrid people are more in control when they watch new additions and it is not mixed with private messages.

  

More on Flipgrid

• The book Flipgrid in the interactive class door Joe and Kristin Merill
• New!  Use of backgrounds in Flipgrid (backdrops)
• Seven ideas for Flipgrid activities
• Nine new ways to use Flipgrid in the classroom
• Playlist van Flipgrid tutorials
• An alternative for Flipgrid is Threadit by Google

Tip

You can also add Flipgrid as app in Microsoft Teams

My dream: facilitating a whole week online

Well some of you may have different dreams, but one of my dreams was to facilitate a whole week online. I was interested to see how to make the program balanced and interesting, combine fun with work. Thanks to corona my dream came true :).

I facilitated the yearly exchange from an alliance active in 13 countries. From Guatemala to Indonesia. For a whole week. Yes that is super fun! What I liked the most was that I felt I got to know a number of people at the end of the week. However, not the whole group. Of course, the online week resulted from the corona crisis and we could have had more fun all together in the Netherlands, so this is definitely not a plea to do everything online. On the other hand, only 20 people would have come together in the Netherlands and we involved 40-45 people in our exchanges, even 80 in one meeting which was open to a wider group.

In the video below with the title 'locked in a room for a week' I share my experiences.

We had working sessions, fun sessions and knowledge sessions. We used google classroom, regional assignments and Flipgrid to weave all together. We did quite a good evaluation with mentimeter and I was particularly happy with the word cloud and the feelings of the participants regarding the balance.

It is of course paramount to do something like this as a team. I had a group of 3 colleagues to work with. We actually didn't talk that much about our division of tasks, but it surfaced kind of naturally. During the week had a Whatsapp group, which we mainly used to briefly tune who does what. We started every day at 9 a.m. with the facilitators team looking back and look ahead. At the end of the week it was quite impressive to see what grounds we had covered, from learning about food systems to developing communication plans and learning from communication experts to formulating an advocacy message for parliament.

How do you take care of yourself as a facilitator? Being locked in a room for a week is of course somewhat exaggerated. I had kept my calendar completely empty as much as possible, so it didn't feel like an extremely busy week. I regularly went out for walks or some shopping in between the sessions. I also had a lot of fun in the fun sessions like doing bootcamp exercises for the first time in my live.

If I'd have to improve? I think I would add more exchanges about the projects on the ground. On the other hand, that would overload the schedule, so after all, it would look quite similar actually...What I would do is blend the fun sessions with the working sessions, because they were currently optional. It would have been good for the team building to have a larger group during these sessions. 

Tool and tips for the online flip

The whole world is aiming at 'social distancing' As a facilitator, trainer are you going to cancel lessons and workshops or do you opt for online? It may sound challenging, but now is the time to try that online approach, or experiment more than you did before. We are all looking for ways to continue work and learning as well as possible. So take a stab!

The good thing: flipping your lesson or workshop is a creative process. Plus the flip can have advantages...  Things that are difficult in a physical setting may work out better online. A good starting point is the question of what you want to do asynchronously online (each person in his/her own time) and synchronously online (together online at the same time). Brainstorm input, questions or experiences can be collected asynchronously in tools such as Flipgrid, Padlet, Answergarden or IdeaBoardz. You can offer theory through a video or short online lesson. Or you make a quiz with Quizzes or Mentimeter that each takes on its own time, which you then discuss at a synchronized moment. Tools for synchronous online are Zoom, Skype, Google Meet or a tool that is known within your organization. In addition, there are many tools that are less known with which you can create fun online lessons:

• Eduflow is free the coming months
• Google classroom is the free tool of Google. You can do a lot. A downside is that everyone should have a Google account.
• Blendspace  for online lessons
• Blackboard collaborate for schools already working with Blackboard 
• Edpuzzle for video lessons with quizzes. Here you will find an explanation
• Microsoft teams is also a good basic tool. Here you can learn more. 

Ofcourse there are many more options.... We often use Ning because of the social features.

A short checklist 

1. Do I flip my activity to online or postpone? Is there urgency to do it? Will participants have time and energy to do it online?
2. What activities do you want to do online? Distinguish between activities with the whole group, subgroups and individually
3. What do you want to do synchronously, what asynchronously? Look for a good balance
4. Which toolset do you need? Think of a good synchronous tool (Skype, Zoom, Google meet etc) and good asynchronous tool (Ning, Microsoft Teams, Facebook for work etc)
5. How long will your program last? Synchronous sessions max 1.5 hours
6. What do you need to facilitate well? Think of help from others, scripts for the sessions, paid accounts, estimated time to prepare yourself

Example of a flipped session

Here you find an example of a flipped work session with 10 organizations and about 5 participants per organization. The session was originally scheduled for an entire morning. The aim of the work session is to share experiences in work with disabled children. The idea is that people work on small products in groups. How is that possible online? We came up with the following form: The online work session lasts 2 to 3 hours and has a theme defined upfront.  

1. In the run-up to the session, we invite all participants to share an important experience with the theme on an online brainstorming wall like Padlet.
2. When the session starts, we meet online in a webinar room (e.g. Adobe Connect).
3. We get to know each other (name on map of the Netherlands, answer some light-hearted poll questions and interaction in chat) and make a substantive start by discussing the results of the online brainstorm.
4. Then all participants work on the theme in small groups for half an hour. Each group gets its own online workspace and the chat is open to questions in between.
5. With "screen sharing" we view each other's result. We briefly place two groups together in an online "room" to exchange and give each other feedback.
6. At the end we harvest. We do this by collecting important insights and immediately processing them in an infographic. A tangible product at the end of this session.

Online facilitation inspired by car dealers

We have recently bought a different car, a used car. We started with a search on the Internet. Then we went one afternoon to some dealers to watch the cars. We met the first salesman there.  Fortunately he fully matched my preconceptions of a car salesman :). He was a man who was already retired, and was selling cars for fun during weekends. He questioned us and soon realized that my husband was sensitive for station models and I had a crush for colors, my daughter wants to have a red car. So he pointed at a red Citroen station model. He told us we were very lucky, the car was € 1,000 cheaper because "no one wants a red car" .. But we had to decide quickly, actually today. We could make a test drive immediately . I heard a strange sound during the test drive. When I told hem about the sound, he went with us for a drive in the car. He started the engine full gas and said: "Hear, hear what  a wonderful sound, a very strong engine. I wished it was my car" Eventually he heard the noise and explained that would entail only a 5 minutes repair. Long story short: we have not bought this car. We purchased the car at another dealer. Who really surprised us when we arrived: He had packed up the car and we could unpacking it as a gift :).

Learning is not the same as selling cars is it? 

I was reading a blogpost by Wilfred Rubens today in which he argues that you can not transfer lessons from Greenwheels and Thuisbezorgd.nl to education. Because education is more than just making content available. Thus facilitating is really different than selling cars. Yet I believe we also copy and learn from car sellers. Long ago I thought marketing specialists were sellers of hot air and were no craftsmen. However, since the social media age I started following more and more marketers online. They embraced social media earlier than learning professionals so that alone is something we can learn from. They are also good at studying people and their behavior and how to influence their behavior.

A famous marketing model is the model by Cialdini with 6 strategies to influence people. The 6 strategies are:

1. Reciprocity - We like to return favours. We started with a cup of coffee at the car dealer's.
2. Scarcity - when something is scarce people want it. According to the car salesman this car offer was only valid for this day.
3. Authority - you believe the professor rather than the postman. The car seller stressed that he had sold cars his entire life. (Unfortunately that was a minus for me :)
4. Consistency (and commitment) - once people have put the first step is the next easier. A test drive ...
5. Consensus (Social evidence) - one sheep over the dam.. and others follow. Stories about other people who also opted for this type of car.
6. Sympathy (liking) - If you like someone you are quicker to award him something than when you don't like someone(this factor had my car salesman then not again!)

In the Dutch learning trajectory about learning technologies we investigated how you might apply these principles to online and social learning.

This prompted a discussion on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. My own conclusion is that you have to look and observe what drives people, what motivates them. So my car salesman quickly realized that would still like to have a red car and my husband was prone to a station model. How did he get there? By simply asking what we seek, by asking and observing which cars drew our attention. If you realize this, the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is less relevant. Is ultimately about influencing people. What trigger can you use to motivate them?

From car sales to learning online

The link between Cialdini and online learning is that we are learning online with a lot of added distractions than in a  face-to-face setting. In an online workshop or webinar for example, you're always just one click away from your email. I myself have just facilitated a three-week online course on business and human rights, the involvement from week one to week three went down, from high to low. It's quite a challenge to keep the attention of busy officials. I still find it a nice challenge to fascinate people, and keep them engaged online. Relying on their own motivation of participants is not enough.

Motivating people to engage in online learning - tips from car salesmen Reciprocity  Be the first to share a story which will incite participants to share as well, they also want to share a story or make sure that there are already interesting documents before asking participants to share documents online. You can also advance if something interesting partsn Give participants a gift, eg. a fact sheet before asking if they want to do something, for instance complete the evaluation Scarcity  Limit the number of spaces. Select participants on the basis of criteria Open a platform, content or activity for a limited period of time. For instance I participated in a MOOC on digital badges which was open for only 48 hours Make sure the platform closes immediately after the course instead of keeping it accessible  Authority Invite respected experts as guest speakers, or to provide feedback or give a master class Invite important, authoritative people to place a cal for participation and finish Use a positive evaluation of an online course or MOOC to recruit people for the next edition Consistency Start with simple questions online, for example to make a simple introduction online. Inviting people to introduce themselves and ask a question for the next in line works well for instance  Ask participants in advance a number of questions, such as whether they want to share online and if they are going to finish the course for example. After this they be more committed to do so  Consensus  Behind the scenes you may invite a number of people to respond or engage online. This will make it easier for the next to follow Emphasize positive behaviour, eg. "80% participated in the first webinar", instead of "I hope next week more people will participate" Work with or likes or best content - so you can show what content is valued  Sympathy/Liking Make contact, such as through the mail and be genuinely interested in the questions and circumstances of your participants Make sure you are visible online, eg by placing a video or photo of yourself and display a positive attitude and tone in your communications Give compliments

Can you think of other actions based on these principles? 

Redesign of face-to-face learning programmes into blended learning - an example in the Netherlands

I worked with a team of an internal academy to redesign their learning programs into powerful blended products. The challenge is ofcourse not to make a programme blended because it is fashionable but to improve the programme. Hence the first step we took was to think about the value of blended in-house learning programmes. The training that we redesigned was a three-day face-to-face event. The added value of blended was formulated by by this team in the following manner:

• Diversity in activities (videos, texts, quiz, face-to-face methods) will allow more people to learn in their preferred styles. This makes it attractive to participate.
• Stimulating people to work in different ways makes sure that learning is solid (think of the brain principles).
• By making the programme interactive and more geared to actual practice we want to have more impact on practice.

Getting started with three design models

After thinking about the added value and an introduction to blended learning we went into sub- groups to redesign using three different models (3P's Jukebox, SamR see video below). This worked very well. I had not asked who the original owner of this training was and from the interaction I could not detect who was the lead of this training. The models invite everyone to become a designer in a new way and really made it a creative process. It was remarkable that people without much explanation, just a handout about the model could work intuitively. Furthermore, a different model really stimulated a different design. 

Looking for similarities and differences
 Using the three creative designs, we started looking for the similarities between the designs but also the unique ideas that impress the other groups. A similarity was that everyone proposed an online start. The three training days were brought back to 1.5 or 2 days, with online activities in between. It became clear that everyone used online to activate learners. A number of face-to-face elements such as an informal lunch with management was considered very important to keep as a face-to-face element. Truly innovative was the idea to steer away from instruction and ask people for feedback instead of educating them. This called was the "teach-back".

How did the models help? The 3P model definitely helped to surface these kind of ideas. I think the Jukebox model stimulated that group to think about a mentor-buddy system. This was the point where I correctly identified the owners of this training - because of ownership of how things have been done. However, this lead to an extensive discussion and comparison of activities with the original plan, all ideas were scrutinized in detail by the team. The discussions led to a reformulation of the goals. The original formulation was knowledge- oriented, currently the focus is more on networking and knowing who to ask questions. Another innovation was thinking about a cohort group helping each other beyond the course. I think that the models helped everyone to think more out of the box.

Challenges 
Facilitating online raised a number of challenges which still need to tackled by the team. The first is the inclusion of management and subject matter experts in this new way of training. A second one is choosing a suitable platform. There are some platforms in the organization available but not a clear LMS. This will be the next step for this team - discussions in the organization and in search of the right tool.

From intuition to knowing for sure: a case of applying learning analytics at course level

Blogpost is written in collaboration with Francois Walgering from MOOCfactory and Sibrenne Wagenaar from Ennuonline.

More and more trainers and facilitators use online platforms for online interaction to facilitate learning. This is akin to face-to-face facilitation but also has its own dynamics. For example, how do you know if an online article is read? Or how much time a participant spends viewing a video or doing an assignment? Which participants connect online? How to judge whether valuable conversations place? In a face-to-face setting you can ask process questions to participants: "do you need more time for this discussion?" And "an extra assignment about ... seems to make sense." You can observing interactions and sense the group's enthousiasme. You may adjust the learning process gradually as a result.

In an online environment you miss these kind of observations. Online, some data can be helpful. Data collected by the system, such as degree of online activity, time spent viewing source, reached level, length of discussions. The value of these data is in analyzing and interpreting: what we call learning analytics. We recently experienced the power of learning analytics and gladly share this experience with you.

The case: the food and nutrition security course


We have designed and facilitated a five-week online course (a so-called SPOC- Small Private Online Course) "Food and Nutrition Security". About 90 people took part, and we have worked with them in Curatr, a learning platform that supports social learning. Four of the five weeks had a specific theme in the fifth week was reserved to work on practical cases, brought forward by participants and experts. The participants received a certificate after earning a minimum number of points per week and writing a case reflection. 19 people have received the certificate.

Online monitoring- using your intuition
During the course, uur most important source of information were feedback from participants on the online platform and e-mail messages, about content as well as the process. We had a picture of important issues, issues that led to discussion and effective learning activities. For instance, we received many compliments on the weekly interactive webinars. Another example: after an upgrade of the software technical problems arose which discouraged participants. And a number of participants informed us that they appreciated the content very much, but got in trouble with new ad hoc task at work. By following discussions and explicit interaction with a number of participants, we have developed a feel for the quality of the learning process. A group of enthusiastic participants began to emerge as a core group. Intuitively we felt that we were on the right track with this online learning program. But ... what can the data can tell us?

Online monitoring- analytics
Curatr collects behind the scenes lots of data using Experience API (xAPI). Beyond the general data such as name, surname, e-mail, organization and function you also get very good insight into the 'User'- and' Usage 'data. What is the difference between user and usage data?

User data is: all qualitative data you collect within the platform:

• All threads are started by participants;
• All reactions started in several discussions;
• All sources (videos, PDFs, blogs, websites) which were added by participants;
• Any responses to learning activities offered (eg reflection questions, quiz, open questions)

Usage data are the quantitative data (see illustration)

• How many comments have been posted by participants;
• How many resources have been added by a participant;
• How many comments by those who have liked;
• Who what when level has been reached;
• Number of participants who completed the SPOC.

Learning Analytics involves looking at the data, analyzing it and acting on the results. We can perform learning analytics at different levels . The depth of analysis affects the reliability of the actions we arrive at. You could say that learning analytics roughly consists of five steps:

1. Visualize: You are viewing the data, for instance, 100 participants who completed the SPOC, 20 participants in the test with a level one completed. This qualitative data is generally speaking easy to generate from a learning platform.
2. Clustering: The data that you see, can be clustered: all activities of a participant, all threads which have been started, all the sources added. Together they form perhaps a cluster 'involvement' or 'quality'.
3. Relationships: For instance "after a mail by the facilitator the activity on the learning platform has gone up." Or "the most important activity on the learning platform is to discuss with each other. "
4. Patterns: activities that have repeatedly proven themselves. We see for example, by looking at different SPOCs that 80% of participants watching a video stop after three minutes. 
5. Actions for the future: Based upon the pattern 'participants stop a video after 3 minutes' we may decide to use only videos within that period, or ensuring that the core of the message is transmitted within the first three minutes of the video.

Learning analytics in the case of the Food and Nutrition Security SPOC

In the case of the Food and Nutrition Security course we have taken a number of peaks at the data like people logged in and the leadershipboard during the course. Afterwards, we dived deeper into the data, with extensive analysis and interpretation. This proved really valuable and has given us new insights regarding the manner of participation of participants and the motion when it comes to social learning. A few examples:

• Most of the participants who have ended high in the leadership board, earned points by contributing to the discussions. This group was also very visible to us and we had them 'spotted'. However, there appeared to be two participants who earned quite a few points, purely by studying sources. They had not responded online and had therefore remained invisible to us. While they actively participated in the course.
• We were also curious to know about sources and questions that entice good discussions. 'Good' a qualitative concept and difficult to measure. But some threads stood out because of the large number of responses from participants. We have analyzed those discussions discovered that the striking aspect here was the contribution of an expert / coach: the fact that the expert herself was involved in the discussion by asking questions, giving an opinion, made the discussion very lively.
• A diverse group took part in this course, and we were wondering if we would see differences in participation between certain "groups" (eg working in the Netherlands versus working in Asia, or working for NGOs versus working for government). This certainly was the case. Some "groups" had a much more explicit contribution to the social learning than other groups. Important to know when designing new courses! In the illustration, you can see the visualized total scores of the different groups.

Some of our lessons about using learning analytics as online facilitator

• Using learning analytics can be very supportive of your role as an online facilitator. You can find confirmation for possible interventions. In the beginning as an online facilitator you may be scared or disappointed by the fact that not all participants are active online. Why is that? Is it unclarity, disinterest? If data show that they participants have accessed the available resources but have not commented on the platform can may react different and try to stimulate reactions. You might invite those who did not respond specifically to do so.
• It is valuable to combine data from the 'system' with own feelings and observations, such as reactions of participants by mail. Thus observations and analytics can reinforce each other.
• Before you start with the learning process make an inventory of your questions and possible indicators and numbers. What would you like to see? Are you happy with 10 active participants? What sources are you doubtful about? If you do this before the start, you will know better what information will help you to gain insights during the course. 
• Make a plan for how often want to use and analyze data during the course. In 'Food and Nutrition Security' case we analyzed more deeply after the course. Of course we held an eye on the obvious data during the project (who log in and who contributed) but we could have put the data to better use. An exmple: afterwards we compared the activity in the various user groups. We could have done this even earlier and spend more energy to involve some groups. 
• The learning analytics as described took place at course level. You can also go one step further and compare the data from the corresponding course with data from other courses. The results from such analysis can contribute to conclusions that fuel future designs.
• Take time for accessing the data. Plan it in! Learning analytics is still a relatively new activity for many online facilitators. And certainly if you want to monitor during the course by means of data, it requires a regular look at the dashboard, analysis and opinion to determine your future interventions.
• And ... start conversations with people involved to interpret the data! Check the data with curiosity and discuss it with those involved. Feeling and intuition are crucial. However, sometimes data offer new perspectives but often just confirms a certain intuition. This may then be a catalyst in order to take action. In our case we had weekly progress discussions, which might have benefitted from some data interpretation. 

Last but not least ... be careful about how you use your data. Be transparent about your intention with it. Tell participants very clearly what you will do with the data. After all, you are working with data on the performance of individuals in a learning environment.

Facilitation without frontiers: breaking boundaries of time and space with online methods

Last Friday I facilitated a workshop for the #iaf conference in the Netherlands. The theme was 'facilitation without frontiers'.

I started my workshop explaining that many facilitators and trainers immediately start drawing two boundaries when they get an assignment to facilitate:

1. The boundary of the walls of the workshop venue (everybody who attends is in, everybody who doesn't attend is out). 
2. Time boundaries (we set a date whether it is for half day, 1 day, 3 days or 2 weeks)

These boundaries limit the quality of the design of the process, because sometimes there are people who are not invited into the space whom could play an important role. You may invite them by skype or by open spaces like Twitter. Furthermore I do not believe in stuffing learning in a set period of for example 1- 2 days. Learn and relearning is a longer process. I am convinced that a blended process works better. Many facilitators already know this and work with longer trajectories but the funny thing is in between face-to-face they loose sight and interest in the process. It becomes like a black box. I believe learning and change processes are better facilitated when with blended approaches.

Below you will find my presentation with 7 examples of breaking those boundaries. It was in Dutch, but it might be visual enough for anybody to understand it.

Those little stress moments caused by technology hurdles...

Here you see a picture of reduced pavement edge that makes me happy every time I cycle to the train station. On the way to my station, I had to move my bike high up on the sidewalk here. It seems a small nuisance, but when you are just in a hurry and oncoming traffic is stopping you it can be troublesome. One fine day I saw this reduced pavement step and I was really happy because now I can just continue to the station by cycling. Quickly maneuvering between the oncoming traffic. This pavement reduction appears to be a detail for mankind but makes my trip to the station as a cyclist so much more comfortable. There is one mini-stress moment less on every train travel.

Are you involved in online learning and collaboration? Whether it comes to design of blended courses, a social intranet or online workplace learning - you have to deal with technological annoyances. The mini-stress moments. Thus, the technical details sometimes become an obstacle, to yourself or others. I have once facilitated an online course in Sharepoint and that is where my own allergy from Sharepoint got its foundation. Every time I wanted to read an answer I had to click to open the answer. I was completely grumpy from there about sharepoint! Besides looking at functionalities it is hence important to (continue to) look for the so-called dissatisfiers, 'annoyances' things that make a tool that produces stress.

Herzberg has a model for employee motivation - making a distinction between satisfiers and dissatisfiers. We may tend to give more attention to the satisfiers (what's in it for them?) But also look at your dissatisfiers in using online tools. I think Herzberg is certainly right - in saying that you must work on removing the dissatisfiers as much as possible. They may be small but influential. In Ghana, we could not book a direct flight to cut costs and then had to change planes in London. This was such dissatisfier we had continuously discussions over this topic and the stories were getting worse. After this policy was changed there was room for attention for more important matters. How can you detect dissatisfiers in online learning / collaboration?

• When choosing tools look for possible dissatisfiers. This is a reason for me to give priority to tools that people already know. No new tools = less chance for dissatisfiers. Testing with participants also helps of course. And self testing. A shiny new tool but clumsy because it does not work in the browser which most people are using? Forget about it. 

• Make login easy. Log in can be an obstable. I'm very happy that you can send a webinar link with Adobe Connect to participants with the instruction; click on this link and enter your name. So simple. I have worked with a platform where you could not change your password. To me that is a dissatisfier which might put people off. In certain situations, you may therefore opt for a special tool without login. See 9 video conferencing tools without login.

• Monitor dissatisfiers. You can not foresee everything while testing. Disssatisfiers can differ from person to person as well. So monitor what is easy / difficult try to remove obstacles. For instance, I noticed that with a series of webinars speakers were nervous for the technique. Employing someone who is helping 'take care of technology' takes the stress away. In another process, people were quick to lost the link to a platform. It helped to have a bookmarklet (icon) they could find in the browser and there but have to click. In an organisation, a pop up on the intranet was meant to help them pay attention, but was a major dissatifier. Monitor and adjust... 

Actually you looking for my lowered curb / reduced pavement edge but for the people you are working with online

Working with visuals as powerful learning activity

Talking about practice what you preach! -  This is really what we did during the webinar about using visuals with Nancy White. We were choosing images, discussing images, drawing pictures alone and drawing pictures together. It was an eye-opener that working with visuals is much more than selecting a nice image to illustrate your text: drawing can be a powerful learning intervention.

The power of visuals is that it involves another part of the brain, which influences the directions of discussions. Visuals are engaging, by engaging both emotions and invoking sense-making. Some visuals are culturally sensitive but there are also symbols which work across all culture, for instance the spiral as a symbol of change. Some people may feel resistance to drawing because it missing the structure they are craving for. One of the lessons we learned is that images without text will have a more open interpretation, an image with text is already interpreted by the owner. Hence you have to think carefully how and if you want to combine text with images. Visuals can be used a variety of function - to illustrate an idea, - to clarify (like a model), - to stimulate curiosity, - to negotiate meaning making. We have to be conscious about how we use visuals - is it simply about making the online page look more attractive, is it to contextualize, or to stimulate curiosity? For learning purposes as a facilitator you can use visuals as well for meaning making. Videos are also powerful. Having the voice of a certain perspective on video can lead to people taking in the information differently then when presented in text.

  Some interesting online exercises for trainers and facilitators - for inspiration

• Ask people to share an image online on a topic before an online meeting (for instance in a padlet or boardthing). During the meeting you can invite people to group the images and invite a conversation about it. Especially inviting people to interpret images and to ask questions.
• Ask people to brainstorm during an online meeting on a topic through text. Then regroup or ask people to pick an interesting aspect. Here you don't use images. However, you visualize the conversation because it is visible for everybody.
• Do a visual summary of an online discussion for instance in a wordcloud, mindmap or with images
• Ask people to draw individually on a part of an online whiteboard
• Ask the group to draw collectively on a whiteboard
• Use videos - a creative use of videos was shared where each stakeholder had a video.

A list of resources if you want to do more with visuals

• Liberating structures, see for instance drawing together about face-2-face drawing
• The noun project 'creating the world visual language' through symbols
• Rich pictures by Checkland as part of the Soft Systems methodology, see also this resource
• The book Ruimte door beelden by Judith Zadoks
• Boardthing as online whiteboard for drawing together. Be aware that the chat is not working on the ipad.
• Kinestetic modelling by John Ward
• Group works deck
• Idea rating sheets 

Design of blended learning: inspiration from a book about design thinking

I read the Dutch boek De Ontwerpfactor, written by Marguerithe de Man. She did a sabatical studying urban planning and landscape architecture which inspired her to write this book about design of learning and change trajectories. Marguerithe is part of our trajectory leren en veranderen met sociale media which makes it extra nice to read.
... What I liked most about the book is that it provides the space to look at the design process in different ways. In our own book we have four design stages for designing a blended program. After reading this book, I think we could have make more room for the individuality and personal style of trainers and consultants in the design process. It also helps me understand that at the end of the day about blended learning design most participants were not yet ready to really put a design on paper (or ipad). The actual design process is quite messy and needs time to ponder and mull things over. A beautiful sentence from the book: "The challenge is to discover your own design issues and process. There is not a single design process.." I remember we did a design session with roughly 10 people before our learning trajectory in which we wrote down the main issues to deal with. At the end we hardly looked at this list when designing the trajectory....

I read the book with the design of blended or online learning trajectories in mind. Some things I definitely take away from the book for the design of blended learning programs:

• The metaphor of concrete and timber trees. What part of your design is crucial and need to be concrete and what aspects can you leave more open-ended? For a blended program: can the participants help shape and detail the goals of the trajectory? Is the platform a private online platform or is er openess to use online side-walks using other media? I think as a designer you have the choice to put everything in concrete but you can also design for flexibility. A nice example in our own district: people created all kinds of new paths because the route to the mall was not logical for walkers and cyclists. Are you going to build a fence (see picture) or customize your design?

• The agent design (is this the right translation for middelontwerp?). For me this is a new concept, it prescribes how to manufacture the product. In a blended program you have no prescription but it may be necessary to clarify a number of assumptions - how independent you expect people to be... how much you're going to help if they get stuck. You can do this in an intake interview. For instance we are now more explicit during our intake that we are available for support when people are stuck in their cases but it is their own responsibility to call upon us. It can also include instructions for online platform construction if that is outsourced. It's new for me! Will need to think more. 

• Working with personas. This is something I recognized from my own experience-it is very powerful to work with personas - when youare designing. I did this in a project with a design team. When working with personas you create an image of a user that you give a name. It is not a person but a number of people in the 'meat grinder' (as the book calls it). In our project it worked very well because every time we had new ideas we thought how Marjan and Kees would like it. When designing a blended program working with personas is a very strong approach because you can choose personas with different preferences and skills in working online. Why I have not used more often? - Perhaps because it is still a step that extra time seems to cost?

• Design/ atmosphere. How important is the attractiveness/atmosphere? This is also something we can learn from designers - attraction is also important. I often tend to work with the tools out there, such as Sharepoint, or LinkedIn because I love working with the well-known tools, which is also an important consideration. However, I struggle with the attractiveness/atmosphere. After reading the book, I feel design considerations (attractiveness) is a little higher on my list of criteria in choosing tools for blended learning. 

• Interface. Architects also work with the spaces between buildings - the interface. In blended trajectories you will have to switch between online and face-to-face. You will also have to space activities. Are you for instance planning weeks to rest with no activities? This is another example where I learned to be more explicit about our design. The first trajectory people complained that little was happening during the 'off-weeks'. 

Sorry, the book in only available in Dutch!

Facilitating the transition from online to face-to-face conversations and vice versa

Photo by sparkzy

I participated in the online facilitation course by Nancy White (long ago!) when we were practising a chat session, just typing without any audio. The flow was very fast, it was Friday, there were lots of jokes and I was enjoying myself. Suddenly Nancy said - shall we move to a teleconference?  So we all dialed in to the teleconference and we didn't know how to continue. The flow was gone... We had to start afresh with our conversation and the line of jokes was gone, because in a teleconference the threshold to throw in a funny line is much higher. It was a good experience to realize that all media have their own affordances. I also realized that the conversation doesn't flow naturally when moving to a different medium.

Blended trajectories
When designing trajectories with an online and face-to-face component you hence need to facilitate these transitions. I've been doing it - sometimes succesfully - but sometimes not at all. The most succesfull transition is in our learning trajectory on social media. We start with 2 weeks online and people are then really eager to meet face-to-face! The are also eager to start online, because they are starting with a new course and are very curious. I decided to ask for some more experiences with facilitating these transitions, on Twitter (thanks Anjet van Lingen and Ben Ziegler), and in the Linkedin groups of the LOSmakers and Virtual Facilitation where I also got very useful contributions. Ben has written a blogpost about the same topic with the great term 'choreographing conversations' and talking about fluidity.

Two examples of a blended design
Nancy Settle- Murphy offered a nice example asked for help in creating a new strategic plan for a 70- person department. She opened a virtual conference space where all employees were invited to answer a few open-ended questions related to strategic opportunities, threats, etc. and to assess their workplace culture. Then summary was used to jumpstart a 1-day working session face-to-face with  the executive team to come up with 7-9 strategic focus areas. Since she wanted all members of the department to be able to propose ideas and actions for all initiatives volunteers lead subteams to brainstorm ideas and propose action plans for each initiative, this was done face-to-face as well.   Each session of 7-9 people had a scribe, who keyed the ideas generated in each session ideas into the virtual conference space. Everyone was then invited to join the online conference area to view ideas, and submit their own ideas. This was used to create detailed plans. 

Vera Hendriks of Agri-ProFocus shared how they use online before a meeting to set the agenda together, then distribute flyers during an event with the web address. After the meeting they post reports and photos online, as well as discussions. People are curious to see the pictures, hence log on and may then contribute as well to discussions. 

Nice examples of how you can blend online and face-to-face elements... and make use of the advantage of both modalities. What I like about the example is that the steps are all geared to making optimum use of time and knowledge of participating employees. In other words - you can think strategically about participation in the process.

Commitment and a sense of urgency 
The hard part of a blended process is ensuring online participation. What is key to a successful transition is that people feel committed to the process and see and feel the urgency to continue online or start online. People may attend a meeting because they are invited but may more easily ignore an invitation to contribute online. Hence it is very important that there is a clear sense of urgency and that the topic is important enough to deserve more attention. Why would the group continue online or why start online? Without this urgency it might be better not to continue online to avoid disappointment with contributions and avoid that you end up 'pulling a dead horse' (is this an English expression?).

Seduce
Equally there are ways to seduce people into participation online. A practical example is to post something of interest like photo's and people may be triggered to look at the photo's. You may also give out a price for the best contributors. And seduce by bringing your own enthousiasm.


Be clear about the ending
What is also important is that there is clarity about the online process and that it is not too-open ended; altough in communities it is often more open-ended and spontaneaous. For instance make it clear that you will collect arguments or examples for 2 weeks, then analyze the arguments and end with a poll to vote for the best arguments. Also state when the discussion will close and/or the online space will be closed down.

Some practical tips to facilitate transitions for facilitators

• Think through the overall goal and various online and face-to-face steps and how they are linked. Point out how the steps are linked to eachother. This will help people see the urgency and logic.
• When transitioning from face-to-face to online, make it attractive for people to participate online by offering a 'warm embrace' make sure the online space is attractive, be enthousiastic and be there yourself online. 
• Develop a sense for the hot topics with sufficient urgency to attract people's attention for a longer period of time. Look for lead persons to help shape the topics online. 
• When transitioning from online to face-to-face make sure you bring product or summaries from the online discussion into the face-to-face. Make that the basis for the next steps.

Tips for online decision making

We started our fourth learning trajectory about learning with social media in the Netherlands 'Leren en veranderen met sociale media'.  It is amazing to see the energy of the people who dive into the first online block. They complain about the time it takes, but they are the ones investing a lot of time in all the assignments! One of the assignment is to work in a group and choose a tool, try the tool and present it lateron after 3 weeks.

It is very hard to make decisions online in asynchronous discussions. In a meeting you propose something and ask around whether everybody agrees and it is done. Or you vote. Anyhow a lot of things can still go wrong face-to-face in decision making... I once did a course on it. Online it is even more complicated because you need someone to take the lead online. If you take the lead and do a proposal online, you are not sure when the others will read your proposal and will react to it. Do you want to make a decision democratically with the whole group, it might take ages. If you don't wait ages the danger is that you take a decision to which people don't comply. Hence a few tips for online decision making:

• Propose something and give a clear deadline for input/reactions.You can also make a proposal to the group but make it clear when people need to respond and that the group will move ahead after this date. It is clear that those who do not respond to this call to participate in the decision loose the opportunity to participate.
• Use an online poll to collect opinions of the whole group.  If you use a tool like  opinionpower or polldaddy you can quickly make an online poll. If you limit your poll to one simple question, people can react really fast. Again, don't forget to provide a deadline. If you use a poll you know much better what the various opinion in the group are.
• Organise a synchronous call or chat. It is much easier to use a synchronous moment (when everybody is online at the same time) to make a group decision. Hence you might organise a synchronous moment. The disadvantage of this is that you have to find a date, which is a decision in itself :). But you may use a tool like meetingwizard for this. During the call or chat you can discuss the decision in-depth.

As you can see, the options from top to bottom are becoming more democratic and more time consuming. This is something to weigh against the importance of the decision. Furthermore, there are specialized online tools specifically designed to support complex decision-making processes. A handfull: 

• Ideedropper - This is a new tool that works as an online suggestion box within an organization or project. Participants can over time add innovative ideas online. After a certain time, a decision may be taken where the decision line is also visible.
• Weighteddecision - via the matrix you can make a ranking of all options and selection criteria.
• Synthetron - allows you to prepare complex policy making decisions with larger group of stakeholders.
• Liquidfeedback - for online referendum. 
• Powernoodle - is free for small groups. You can ask questions and invite people to provide input. You can start multiple sessions. At one point you can close the question.
• Uservoice - helps to gather feedback from customers (especially suitable for large numbers of customers). 1 forum is free.

Non-verbal communication for online facilitators

At the University I did communication studies as one of my subjects and I always liked non-verbal communication. As someone who is really enormously mirroring others non-verbal behaviours - it made me notice how often I do this. For instance when someone folds her arms and we have an intense conversation, I am also folding my arms. I can also listen with lots of attention - I'm the kind of person who at the end of the party didn't notice all the things going on because I was only paying attention to the people I was talking to.

Non-verbal communication can by via posture, eyecontact, gestures, but also movement or appearance - for instance having long hair as a man - what message does that convey?  In my communications book it is stated that 70% of all communication is non-verbal and that non-verbal signals are 5 times stronger than verbal.

So how does this work for online facilitators and trainers.. What should you do as a facilitator or trainer without this body language? You have no signals whether participants are falling asleep ... Does this mean that you can more easily focus on the content without being distracted or does it rather mean that you miss 70% of the communication and have to deal with 30%? I think this is one of the reason that there are not many trainers yet who have stepped up to facilitate online - they feel lost online - as facilitating in a room where the light is turned off.


Hanna Bervoets, a Dutch columnist had an interesting column last Saturday in the newspaper about nonverbal digital communication. She states that there is something like Dinoco - Digital Non-written communication which she explains as the behavior around sending digital messages that conveys an extra meaning. As an example- someone sends you accidentally a message that was intended for another person which means he (unknowingly) is thinking about you. Or another example - someone sends a tweet and removes it immediately. Meaning: he is nervous or unsure. I found this to be great examples and full of recognition as an online facilitator. If you have made many online hours, you can read a lot between the lines. So there is certainly a kind of meta-communication online, similar to non-verbal communication that you can learn to read as facilitator. I can see from the way of writing of emails from people I work with when they are very rushed / stressed or not. I also know often on a  Skype call when someone is multitasking. What I don't know is whether this requires a new kind of intuition?

Apart from reading between the lines, there are more ways to capture what is going on in a group and what participants are going through which is not communicated in the text. The 5 most important non-verbal channels of an online facilitator are:

1. Use statistics. Most online environments offer some statistics, eg. the number of times a video is viewed, or that a particular discussion is viewed. Also, often you are able to see how many people have logged in or have responded. For example, you may use Google Analytics for this. You can use this to test the waters and monitor. For instance in a trajectory with 50 participants we had a webinar with 15 participants. The recording however, was viewed 60 times. This means the interest is high but people might not have found the time to participate at that particular hour.
2. Learn to read digital meta - communication.  If you start to know online habits, you can read between the lines (as I explained above). For instance, I knew in a particular course that a participant contributed every Monday. If this participant logs on but posts nothing, it may be a sign that something is wrong. For others, it may be perfectly normal to log on and yet not post on Monday because they may post later in the week.
3. Use emoticons and emotions. If you role model online showing your emotions others will also be likely to follow. For example: show that you yourself are enthusiastic about certain developments or have questions. You may also capture some developments that you sense, like everyone being busy with end-of-year stuff.
4. Ask questions on meta level. You can particularly use tools to ask for quick feedback, for instance,  you can do a quick poll or survey or even call someone to see how he or she is doing. In one project, we had a weekly barometer for the group to measure group emotions and then made adjustments if necessary. Or you may send an occasional email to a participant to get some feedback.
5. Use synchronous moments.  Synchronous moments such as chats or webinars are very convenient to hear what's going on and receive feedback. But it could also be that you can see who is online (for instance in Ning or Facebook you can see who is connected, or also on Skype). When you see someone is connected you can use this to collect some quick feedback. Similar to meeting someone in the corridor! In webinars or teleconferences there are more signals than in text environments, for instance you can also interpret voices and how actively people participate. But you may also take 10 minutes in your webinar just to discuss progress.