Wrapping up my online facilitation course

This is not going to be my last post on this blog but the course ended a couple of weeks ago and I want to write a post to complete that phase.  It hasn't been easy, being back in school.  It has given me an appreciation of what it takes for the adult learners that I teach to work in a structure.

What went well:  1. signing up and committing to doing it no matter what

2. encouraging my friends to take it with me even though some of them dropped off along the way  3. setting up this blog and seeing that I don't just need to have one blog, I can use blogs for other interests rather than just childbirth (do I have any other interests?).  4. finding out about cool things like "Screenr" and WizIQ.  5. Sarah Stewart's encouragement and graceful way of teaching. 6. Completing with all assignments done (even though a little late).

What didn't go so well:  1. proscratinating on my course work and then having an overwhelming load of work   2. my final event with Laureen Hudson was marred by problems with sound echoes.  

My online event: Facilitating Online with Laureen Hudson I feel that the event was an overall success in that it came off with just minor hitches.  I let people know on my blog, Facebook, twitter and through my yahoogroups that Laureen Hudson would be presenting.  She's very popular and well known in childbirth circles and many of the FO2010 participants wanted to attend our event, too, and promoted it.  Thanks, team!

It helped  to have the checklist on the wiki to make sure I had all bases covered and that the registration process on WizIQ was clear to everyone.  The backup plan in case of breakdowns was also clear and available on the wiki link. That's where the real work is in putting on an event.  Once the checklist is completed conscientiously, the rest just falls into place.

I found it challenging to get all Laureen's information into a one hour presentation.  

If I had it to do over again, I would have done a "dry run" with Laureen and shortened up the slide presentation.  By the time people get into a classroom and say hi to each other, worry about their microphones and tools, it seems that half the time is taken.  Now that I'm using WizIQ classrooms professionally, I book the time for 10 minutes before we start to let people arrive in a more leisurely way and I let them know up front that they will be able to stay and "yack" in the chatbox for 20 minutes after the class ends.  Certainly the loud echo that my speakers were making during the event did not work.  Since then, I have purchased a headset with microphone so that I can turn my room speakers right off during classes.

The feedback that I got from people who took the class was generally positive except for the echo distraction and one person even said she listened better because of the echo!  It seemed that participants were inspired to take some actions to ramp up their online presence after the talk and that was my goal.  

I've asked Tracy who was in the FO2010 course with me to facilitate the classes that I'm currently teaching.  It really helps to have an objective person watching out for the needs of the students and gathering up questions in the background so that the instructor can just focus on the presentation. It was another bonus of the course that I have now partnered up with Tracy for learning and business. 

So, all in all, I'm very grateful for what I learned in this practical and well organized course and I recommend that everyone take advantage of the opportunity.