An investigation into the roles and competencies of an online facilitator

With the emergence of technology and the increased demand for online courses, traditional classroom instructors and trainers are nervous, reluctant and sceptical to teach in the online environment because they do not know what is expected of them. A practical problem initiated this study. The research problem was to establish which different roles the online facilitator played and to identify which competencies the online facilitator needed to function in the online environment. The basis for this instrumental case study was the eLearn ORO 880 online module for the Master's degree in Computer Assisted Education. The module simulated the reality television series, Survivor, implementing the same rules and events that took place in this series—the location just shifted to cyberspace. The name was adapted to CyberSurfiver . Data were gathered by means of researcher field notes; a focus group interview and a face-to-face interview; a self-administered e-mailed questionnaire and various sets of online artefacts. Content analyses were done by comparing the online facilitator's online artefacts to the Blignaut and Trollip (2003) taxonomy of faculty participation in asynchronous learning environments. A second content analysis was conducted to identify the ‘visible’ online facilitator roles. The Blignaut & Trollip (2003) taxonomy was used as a base line. Five different roles were identified and five different coding schemes were designed. For visibility the online facilitator fulfilled five roles: administrator, social supporter, instructor, guide and mediator. The identified five roles where put through a professional Work Profiling System (WPS) Job Analysis Questionnaires to rate ‘high’ and ‘extreme’ people competencies, thinking competencies and energy competencies for the role of an online facilitator. The results generated in the WPS report indicated that the online facilitator needed 13 competencies to be visible in the role of an online facilitator. The five people competencies were: motivating others; developing others; interpersonal sensitivity; teamwork; building and maintaining relationships. The five thinking competencies were: judgment; information gathering; problem analysis; written communication skills; technical skills and competence. The three energy competencies were: self-confidence; persuasiveness and oral communication skills.

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