Liberating the Online Experience

Liberating the Online Experience

by Bettina Boyle -
Number of replies: 6

Hi everyone,

I'm Bettina Boyle, Faculty and Educational Developer at Capilano University, North Vancouver. This year, I coordinated a Liberating Structures Practice group at CapU (with the great start-up help from Leva!) and I'm always excited to play with and continue to find meaningful ways to engage everyone with liberating structures in different context and with different people.

Big Question:

How may liberating structures support us in creating more meaningful and engaging online learning experiences? 

Give and Gets:

Gives: Experience facilitating liberating structures in the post-secondary context (with students and faculty). Experience designing and facilitating online (although not previously explicitly with Liberating Structures)

Gets: I'm curious about ideas for design, prompts, tools etc. in the online context that make the experience as "easy" and playful as in person.

In reply to Bettina Boyle

Re: Liberating the Online Experience

by Nancy White -

Hi Bettina

There is a lot of online LS experimentation going on. Happy to hook you into that CoP (on Slack for coordination, and usually on Zoom for gatherings). The .edu group on the LS community hasn't gotten a lot of traction AND at the same time, we know there is a lot of application, especially in higher ed and I know some of them ARE using it online. Maybe we can do a little network weaving?

In reply to Nancy White

Re: Liberating the Online Experience

by Bettina Boyle -

Thanks Nancy, would love to get hooked into that CoP and to do some more weaving and connecting! My email is bettinaboyle@capilanou.ca.


In reply to Bettina Boyle

Re: Liberating the Online Experience

by Nancy White -

It turns out you are already a member of the LS CoP on Slack. Check out the #virtual and #education channels 

For others interested, the link is : https://join.slack.com/t/liberatingstructures/shared_invite/enQtNTQ1MTQwODY1NjA1LTMxZTI2Y2U3NjU0YzcyNmRlMGFiNmUzMzhkNDAxOTU3OWM3NGQ3ODAzOTQzMGQyY2QxOWQ5MjYyZmE5ODljZTI 

I'm assuming you are already connected to the folks in the Vancouver and Victoria LS Practice Groups, right? 

(Edited by Beth Cougler Blom - original submission Monday, 3 June 2019, 3:27 PM - to create an active link)

In reply to Bettina Boyle

Re: Liberating the Online Experience

by Ross McKerlich -

Hi Bettina - do you use LS for your faculty development sessions at CapU? How are they received? 

In reply to Ross McKerlich

Re: Liberating the Online Experience

by Bettina Boyle -

Yes, we use LS specifically in our LS practice group for faculty, but also in other faculty development workshops. Happy to connect and chat more about it...

In reply to Bettina Boyle

Re: Liberating the Online Experience

by Doug Strable -

Your "how" question about LS creating more engaging online experiences is fascinating to me, as well.  How about this idea to help online experiences "easier" and more engaging. 

I've seen student engagement increased in online adult/post-secondary classes when the first week's learning assignment includes activities totally unrelated to the course but just on developing social skills. 

In one class, we were asked to draw scan etc. a photo, a superhero that best illustrates yourself and explain why in the forum.  In another class, we were told to find a music video on Youtube, post the link.  With your experience with LS, which LS would you say fit with this concept? 

I have tried this concept with a group of international students, but the reasoning was not immediately understood. Others in the class helped explain the instructions so I feel to use the LS type activities online we will need a very detailed explanation to be successful. Let's see how it works in this course.