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Session 5 Developing an action plan
5 Developing an action plan
This next stage of the course is to plan how you will put all the things you have learned into practice. To do this you will be using SMART objectives to develop an action plan (see Table 6), which will help you through the planning process and make it more manageable. SMART is an English word meaning clever, and in this case is also being used as an acronym where each letter stands for a different objective:
| Specific | Your objectives should be precise and well-defined. |
| Measurable | Your objectives should be written in a way that makes it clear when you have achieved that objective and also allows you to monitor progress towards it. |
| Achievable | The objectives you set should be things that you are capable of doing. |
| Relevant | Your objectives should be relevant to what you want to achieve. |
| Time-limited | There should be a deadline for the objective to be met. |
5.1 Setting your objectives
You will now reflect on what you have learned in this course and use this reflection to establish some personal objectives.
Activity 11
Look back at the activities you have done during this course and the notes in your learning log, if you have kept one.
Identify five key SMART objectives that will help you when you become a guide. See Table 7 for an example.
| Sample objective | Post three encouraging responses to learners who haven’t received a response from their peers after one week. |
Conclusion
The role of the facilitator is pivotal to the learning experience offered in online courses. The wide array of people with different backgrounds and expectations who participate in the course means that a facilitator needs to be organised and supportive, and has to encourage everyone to take part.
Throughout this course you will have reflected on what it means to facilitate online conversations in this context, learned best practice methods in dealing with difficult situations and applied this learning in your action plan. You have also built your knowledge of the organisational, technical and communication skills required to be a successful facilitator.
Next, you will need to take the end-of-course quiz and complete the survey to gain recognition of your successful completion of this course.
References
Acknowledgements
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The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this course:
Figures
Course image: ‘Leadership concept. Isolated on white background’. Image courtesy of cooldesign at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Figure 1: ‘Pencil with checklist’. Image courtesy of cuteimage at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Figure 2: ‘Jigsaw puzzle’. Image courtesy of digitalart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Figure 3: ‘Communication and speech bubbles’. Image courtesy of cooldesign at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Figure 4: ‘Internet education’. Image courtesy of hywards at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Figure 5: ‘Maze puzzle solved’. Image courtesy of ddpavumba at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Figure 6: ‘People cogs’. Image courtesy of nokhoog_buchachon at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
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