Are you ready for FO2011?

Here's a short, fun quiz that will help you work out if you're ready for the start of FO2011.

Fees for Facilitating Online 2011

There are three levels of participation and fees for this course.

• Informal students No charge for people who wish to access the course materials and join the course.
• Facilitated students Receive focused and personalised learning support, full access to the course web conferencing platform and email group. Facilitated students receive a certificate of participation when they complete the course $NZ180 inc GST and Internet levy (domestic and international students)
• Formal students Receive full support and access to course materials, assessment services and formal credits for course completion $NZ442.30 approx (domestic); $500 (international students) inc. GST and Internet levy
  

For more information about the fees and how to enrol as a facilitated or formal student please contact our administrator Catherine Lindsay Email.

If you decide to join the course in any capacity, please add your name, blog address and any other online contact details to the wiki page above called "Participants".

How to use Tinychat for online meetings and conferences

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU6Dz2yW1dI

Facilitating Online: Next course starts 7th March 2011

The next facilitated course will start on 7th March 2011 and runs until July 8th. Full details about the course can be found on the course wiki. If you wish to be sent details about when the course will start or any other information about the course, please contact Sarah Stewart: sarah.stewart(at)op.ac.nz.

During the course you will be expected to keep a reflective blog, so if you do not already have one, you may wish to set one up so you are ready to go when the course starts. There are a number of free blogging platforms available - this course recommends Blogger because it is very easy to use if you have never blogged before. However, there are other choices such as Wordpress, Typepad or Edublogs. We will also be exploring a number of online web conferencing tools so it is preferable that you have a headset with microphone.

Fees. There are three levels of participation and fees for this course.

• There is no charge for informal students who wish to access the course materials and join the course.
• There is a fee for facilitated students who would like to receive focused and personalised learning support, full access to the course web conferencing platform and email group. Facilitated students receive a certificate of participation when they complete the course.
• Full fees apply to formal students who wish to enrol and receive assessment services and formal credits for course completion.
  

For more information about the fees and how to enrol as a facilitated or formal student please contact our administrator Catherine Lindsay: catherine.lindsay(at)op.ac.nz

If you decide to join the course in any capacity, please add your name, blog address and any other online contact details to the wiki page above called "Participants".

Thank you, FO2010

This is pretty much the last blog post for FO2010.

I wanted to thank you all for your participation and commitment for the course this year. There are a couple of people who are yet to organise their events, so keep an eye out for information on how to join them.

I have really enjoyed myself, yet at the same time am left asking questions about how the course can be improved to increase a community approach to learning, and retain more people right the way through to the end of the course. A few of you have given me some really useful feedback for how things may be refined for next year, so 'thank you' for that. Please keep an eye on my blog over the next few weeks because that is where I will process the feedback I have received with the suggestions for next year.

The next course will start on March 7th 2011. There will be some changes to the funding model we use. There will continue to be free access to the course materials, blogs and the live sessions. However, there will be a charge if you want to have individual mentoring by the course facilitator. I will announce details about this once they have been finalised.

Finally, I will be starting a research project shortly that is going to explore open education and how we can attract and retain people in courses such as this. So look out for information about how you can be involved.

Thank you all once again for contributing to the success of FO2010. I would like to wish you all a wonderful Christmas break and success in 2011.

Sarah


Image: 'Warm Fuzzies'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44124348109@N01/333542752

Nearly done....

I can't believe it...another mini conference almost over. We do have a couple of outliers, so keep an ear open for when those sessions will be. In the meantime, Lyn has organised her event for Thursday 18th November at 4pm New Zealand time, and she will be facilitating a conversation about how (or how not) to use Facebook for online facilitation - keep an eye on her blog and/or the course wiki for all the details.

Recordings
For those of you who used the Elluminate classroom and recorded your session, let me know and I will send you the link to your recording. Please can you put your recording on your blog and in the course wiki.

Enrolled students
Those of you who are enrolled, please check assignments one and two and make sure you have addressed all the requirements. Once you are happy that your blog contains everything that is needed, please get in touch with me and let me know so that I can complete your work assessment.

NB: the submission date is the 19th November, but if you need a little longer, please let me know. Some of you who already have extension dates, so please stick to those dates as agreed.

Informal students
Those of you who have been taking part as informal student, please let me know when you feel you have met all the requirements of the assignments and if you want a certificate of completion.

Course evaluation and future research
Enrolled students will be asked to complete a formal course evaluation. I will be carrying out a formal research project in early 2011, looking at open education and funding models so I will be getting in touch with you to ask your opinion about this course, what attracted you to it, what made you complete the course and/or what got in the way of you completing the course - more about that research later.

Thank you...
for all the hard work you put into the mini conference. I hope you enjoyed yourselves. I look forward to reading your reflections. Sarah

November 15th Sum up of course and evaluation of mini event

So, did we survive the course mini conference? More importantly, did we learn a thing or two about facilitating online and our responsibilities to our online community, network, virtual team or class? This week we reflect on the experience and make note of the things that happened and what we learned from it all.

Web Conferencing
Attend an Elluminate meeting to debrief the mini conference and the course. You have a choice of two times:

• Thursday 18th November 20.00 hours (World Clock).
• Friday 19th November 12.00 hours (World Clock).

1. Finish the course with a closing post with feedback about the course. Did you learn new and useful things? Was it challenging enough? What could have been better? What could you have done better. Did the course facilitator do a good job? How will you apply what you have learned? Who would you recommend to do this course next time?
2. Students who are enrolled will be asked to complete a formal course evaluation.
3. Complete Assignment Two.


Image: 'Flaming Lips New Years Eve Freakout'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8531589@N05/3158472560