Facilitating activities

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Figure 4

The course is designed to be learner-centred and flexible so people can learn in the way that suits them best. Before offering the course, discuss with the carers who are interested how they would like to work through it. Some learners may prefer to work alone, some in a group, and some may opt for a combination. A ‘Getting Started’ session can explore learners’ preferences for delivery, help them to navigate the course, and ensure that they can enrol (if they choose to).

Each session contains a number of activities, all of which are outlined in the Reflection Log. If you are delivering this course in a blended format, where the learners undertake some of the course online and some in face-to-face sessions, many of the activities are suitable to carry out with a group of learners. Group sessions can help learners to share ideas and keep motivated as they work through the course. Facilitators have told us that the timeline activities in Session 2 and the ‘Thinking about something for me’ in Session 4 work particularly well as group activities.

Some are reflection activities, which learners can do on their own, though they may be interested in discussing them afterwards, either in a group session or an online forum. You should set some ground rules before these discussions take place, to help learners feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts. You might want to discuss with the group what might be included in these ground rules. For example:

  • Learners should only discuss what they feel comfortable with. If they have reflected on aspects of their personal lives, they do not have to share these with the group.
  • Anything shared with the group stays within the room. Learners should trust that what they say will not be shared with others.

In the following sections we have provided some tips for facilitating the activities in each session of Caring Counts.

Making time for learning