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Being an asynchronous online facilitator requires being prepared/organized, being flexible, and being good at managing your time well throughout the semester. Most importantly, provide yourself designated days or blocks of time to check on your course and learners. Below are tips to help you manage your time more efficiently as you become a more effective online facilitator throughout the semester.

Structure, Welcome & Support

• Have your Canvas course organized into weekly modules
• Have all modules ready to be published (open up the necessary modules for learners, and not all at one time, if possible).
• Have your introduction video and welcome announcement ready to be published on the first day or prior to the first day. Include a brief explanation of how best to navigate through your course.
• On your syllabus as well as in your welcome, you may want to include what they can expect of you during discussions, as well as your expectations of them in discussions, etc. For example, I let learners know that I read through all the posts during the semester but will limit my interaction in discussions so that the learning can evolve through their insights, understandings, and experiences. I typically post when I want them to expand on their ideas, offer additional resources, and need to clarify concepts or when they seem to be getting off course. I also communicate with learners that I use announcements throughout the course for similar information, recapping key concepts, updates to the course, and upcoming assignments.
• Plan to allow learners choice, such as responses in discussions can be submitted as visuals, recordings, poems, etc. and not always written.

Communication and Feedback

• Log in on the first day and throughout the first week to respond to introductions. All other discussions/activities, log in a few times during the week to review for learner understanding.
• Check in with anyone who has not posted their introduction by mid-week.
• If you are grading participation, you can use the I/C option or assign points. Either method, you will want to complete the grading in a timely manner so that learners know how they are doing throughout the semester. Set aside a day or time-block teach week o provide feedback/grade.
• Use the Speedgrader within Canvas to provide a brief summary of your feedback or just a note to let them know how they did on their assignment (along with a more detailed response on the written assignment itself)
• Use the inbox through Canvas to reach out to learners when you need to contact them or when they need to contact you.
• Utilize a mid-semester survey (or perhaps a 4-week check in cycle) to gather feedback from the learners-keep the survey to 3-4 questions only to obtain information related to the learners experiences in your classroom.
• Provide praise, affirmations, and encouragement posts/videos, especially at times learners appear tired or defeated.

Critical Reflective Teaching

• Keep a log of what is working and what is not working for changes to be made in your next iteration of the course.