Facilitation Techniques for the On-Line

Tutor

Lynn Davie[1]

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

INTRODUCTION

This chapter has three objectives: in the first section, I want to talk about roles of facilitation for the

tutor, teacher, or facilitator of learning. In addition, I want to examine closely the goals for graduate

education that I am trying to achieve in our computer mediated courses. In this section I will not talk

about management or administrative concerns, but rather focus on the concerns of facilitating

learning.

In the second section I want to look at some of the considerations that need to be taken into account

when designing educational applications of CMC. This section will look at some of the limits of the

medium as it exists and how these limitations influence the design of on-line courses.

The final section will discuss a number of techniques which might be used by the tutor or facilitator to

support desired learning. This paper extends some earlier thinking on facilitation techniques

summarised by Peggy Palmer and myself (Davie and Palmer, 1985).

However, it might first of all be helpful to describe the learning setting in which I have designed and

facilitated on-line courses. The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), has three major

functions: graduate instruction leading to master's and doctoral degrees; research into education; and

field development, by which we mean both the dissemination of research findings and professional

consultation pertaining to the improvement of education in Ontario. We are affiliated with the

University of Toronto and our graduate degrees are granted by that university.

Our major building is located in downtown Toronto, but we maintain eight small field centres

throughout Ontario. Ontario is an immense Province with