Unit Notes - FDWO Week 1: The Big Picture

In week 1 of FDWO, we will get aquainted with the "big picture" of the ISWO, a bit of history/context, and explore the work involved in "pre-course" ISWO preparation, and in facilitating Week 1. 

In these Unit Notes, we'll hear from experienced facilitators on questions like:

• preparing to facilitate ISWO - what do you do?
• what's the best and most challenging aspects of facilitating ISWO?
• how do you manage your time?
• tips on giving feedback, and what you look out for?

And we'll also share a bit about what you need in terms of technical skills to perform comfortably in the ISWO facilitator role. In the FDWO, you'll get a lots of opportunity to practice Moodling on the companion ISWO Sandbox site.

Getting a strong start in facilitating the ISWO is really important. Because the ISWO is designed around participants' active work in facilitating mini-sessions from week 2-5 , how you initially support the set-up of the course site, the community, and the expectations around time and team work will have an impact on how the rest of the course flows. It is important that participants get a good grasp of where to find stuff by week 1, so they can get on with the business of engaging with the course.

Some typical challenges early on (pre-course and week 1) include:

• navigating the site - it's a complex course, with lots of moving parts. We've jigged and re-jigged the placement of many items  (e.g., Backpocket Strategies!), hoping to make them easier to find. But we know there is always room for improvement (this might mean simply moving stuff around, or it might mean exploring different tools, modules, and plug-ins for Moodle in order to bring something new to the site navigation/user experience)
  
  • tip:  always include direct links to parts of the course you're referring to in all  messaging
  • tip: consider including a "navigation screencast" for your version of the ISWO
  • tip: consider trying some of the less-used tools like glossary, database, etc
  • tip: check in with people about their comfort level navigating the site during week 1 collaborate session, address any grey areas in that session, and in a summary post afterward for those who miss it.
• complaining about the amount of work/reading ;) - people sometimes remark that there is a lot of (too much) reading in ISWO.  There is less now; we've pruned the readings list quite a bit over the years in response to this feedback.  Therefore, we feel pretty solid in pushing back gently on this complaint, and reminding people that this course is intended to be informed by research and theory, and we have chosen readings carefully to be both high quality and a reasonable length (you could also ask them to suggest a better alternative reading that is shorter :))
  
  
• expectations around time  - even with the pre-course messaging about the amount of time needed, people may still expect to be able to slide their ISWO work in on the weekends, off the side of their desks, or in little bits and pieces between other daily tasks. This can leave people feeling they are "always" working on the course, but actually their time on task is short.
  
  • tip: repeat the suggestion to book time in all early messaging, intro videos and posts, Collaborate sessions, etc. Encourage people to book time to work with their mini-session partners (and you, if they wish) well in advance