1. Chicagoland eLearning & Technology Showcase
Facilitated by Eric Sanders
eric.sanders@ODeconomist.com
August 16, 2011

2. Objectives
 At the end of this session, you will be able to
 Set up effective on-line discussions
 Facilitate those evolving discussions

3. Who is our audience?

4. Lindeman, as quoted in Knowles (1978, pp, 10-11).
“This stream was launched in 1926 with the publication of Eduard C. Lindeman's The Meaning of
Adult Education, in which appear such insightful statements as these: .. . the approach to adult
education will be via the route of situations, not subjects. Our academic system has grown in reverse
order: subjects and teachers constitute the starting-point, students are secondary. In conventional
education the student is required to adjust himself to an established curriculum; in adult education
the curriculum is built around the student's needs and interests. Every adult person finds himself in
specific situations with respect to his work, his recreation, his family-life, his community-life, et
cetera-situations which call for adjustments. Adult education begins at this point.”
". . . the resource of highest value in adult education is the learner's experience. If education is life,
then life is also education. Too much of learning consists of various substitutions of someone else's
experience and knowledge. Psychology is teaching us, however, that we learn what we do, and that
therefore all genuine education will keep doing and thinking together. . . Experience is the adult
learner's living textbook."5 "Authoritative teaching, examinations which preclude original thinking,
rigid pedagogical formulae-all these have no place in adult education. . . [aspiring adults] who are led
in the discussion by teachers who are also searchers after wisdom and not oracles: this constitutes the
setting for adult education, the modern quest for life's meaning.”
Reference:
Knowles, Malcolm S. (1978) Andragogy: Adult Learning Theory in Perspective. Community College
Review, 5: 9.

5. What do adult learners need?

6. It’s about THEM!
 Connecting learning to life
 Storytelling
 Soliciting examples
 Commenting on those examples
 In the classroom
 AND in on-line discussions

7. How do you write a good
discussion question?

8. How do you write a good
discussion question?
 Relate it directly to the current course materials
 Keep it open enough to solicit various responses
 Make it direct enough to steer them in a particular
direction
 Make sure it ties to THEIR personal experience

9. Example discussion question
 Course: Strategies for Change
 Topic: Overcoming Resistance to Change
 Reading Assignment: Cummings & Worley (2009),
Chapter 10, Leading & Managing Change
 Discussion question
 Motivating change requires 'readiness' and ability to
'overcome resistance' to change. What does this mean
for you in your organization?

10. What are some of your
discussion questions?

12. What do you require of
participants?
 My core requirements:
 Answer the question
 Come to a conclusion (make a point)
 Good writing mechanics (spelling, grammar, citations)
 Good Netiquette (see next slide)

13. On Netiquette…
 Treat others as you would want to be treated
 Respect a diversity of opinions
 Discuss the ideas, not the individuals
 Don’t “flame” each other
 “Listen” carefully and reflect on the message before
responding
 Review your response (twice!) before posting it to the
community
 Label all posts with the key point you wish to make

15. Joining in the discussion –
as facilitator
 Post 10-20% of the total number of posts (not too
much, not too little)
 Reinforce critical points that participants have made
 Add rigor to participant experiences by adding outside
material as appropriate
 I see this as one of our key roles in on-line discussions
 Encourage them to do likewise!

18. How have you posted to
discussions?

19. How does on-line discussion
compliment your other materials?
 In a typical on-line only course:
 Webinars
 Links to readings, videos and other materials
 Individual papers
 Group projects
 In a traditional classroom course:
 Readings and class discussion
 Team building activities
 What else?

20. What forums host these
discussions?
 LMS
 LinkedIn Groups
 John Kelly’s forum:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=78528
7&type=member&item=64902700&qid=eb4f82a4-ecb7-
4c21-8e63-f340684df307&trk=group_most_popular-0-b-
ttl&goback=%2Egmp_785287
 Others?

21. What forums host these
discussions?

22. Discussion on LinkedIn

23. Let’s play!
 Watch the video
 What discussion questions might we ask?
 What additional materials might we reference in our
posts to get participants more engaged?
 What would you hope participants might add?

24. Leaders vs. Managers

25. Leaders vs. Managers

26. What questions might I ask?