Session+Six

= __**SESSION SIX: REFLECTION ON TIME MANAGEMENT**__ =

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As you think back to your previous facilitation experience, what has been your biggest struggle in terms of managing your time or organization. Share your challenge in the table below and offer suggestions for dealing with the struggles others have listed.=====

Challenge ||~ Strategies || // Use the rows in this column to describe challenges you have faced with time management or organization when facilitating. // || //Use the rows in this column to suggest strategies for the challenges posted by others.// ||

(Tyann) I have followed many of the guidelines in “11 Tips for Time Management in a Web Worker World" and for the most part do not have trouble with time management when I am facilitating a course. The one thing I do struggle with is the Postings for opening each session and the mid week postings. I wish there were a way to post these like setting a time for the sessions to open for them to be available to the participants. It would be great if we could post the emails and have them sent at the proper time. Sometimes Sundays and Monday mornings it seems like it is hard to get a timely post when it should be there. || (Connie) I understand what you are saying. I have played with Settings in Outlook, trying to schedule a time for the email messages to go out but I always seem to get side tracked before I get things totally set up. I guess that is a time management issue isn't it! I do better creating the messages in Word and cutting and pasting the messages into an email when it needs to go out. That gives me a bit of reflection time and, if I keep the messages from course to course, all I need to do is edit the message to fit the participants I have in the current session. Helps me manage. (Barb) I like to create my welcomes ahead of time along with News items and I do keep them from previous courses I've facilitated. I make copies on a flash drive so they're with me when I'm away from home. On Tuesday evening, I review what I've already written, make whatever additions and ajustments I need and off they go! For my updates, I make notes throughout the session as to items that need to be reiterated, things that are going well and "nudges" that are needed. On Sunday evening, they're pretty much ready to go and fairly painless.

(Jim) I use the Word pre-release method and copy and paste into an e-mail from the Class list early Wednesday or Monday (update) mornings.

(Linda) Usually on Tuesday night or over the weekend, I open the email from the previous run of the course in outlook. I tweak whatever needs tweaked and then just save it as a draft. Then in the morning I just hop on outlook and send it. I also have an elearning folder with subfolders for each individual course in outlook. I add myself to the group I have created for the course so I don't have to dig through sent items to find the one I need. || (Brandy) Although I posted my "Session Summaries" in a timely manner-I have not really found a good way to create them as I go along. I tried starting a Word document and added to them as I checked the postings but, found that was more time consuming than just re-reading them all at the end of each session and creating a Word doc to organize my thoughts then paste. Any suggestions? This is my least favorite facilitator task. || (Kathy) I remember that there was some debate about the benefit of Session Summaries in one of our previous courses. In my courses, I notice that most participants do not read the summaries. I loved the Wordle that Valerie made to summarize our Orientation Session and I think I will do the same the next time I facilitate. I doubt if the Wordle would work for a Session Summary in a content-laden session.

(Jim) I have tried both ways and adding them as I checked the postings seems to be the best way. But this is my least favorite task, and I am with Kathy on the value of these summaries, as they are not read. I have though of ways to try and make them more engaging.

(Linda) Kathy, you are correct- I went back and looked at the discussions in the facilitator 2 course from 2008 and in one session there were 3 different conversations about the value of the summaries. The only definitive word we got on it was this from Donna- "I do think the Orientation session summary is the most important of all summaries and that if no other summaries are completed the Orientation summary should be completed." I definitely get the orientation one done, but it is also hard for me to get to the others. ||

(Barb) During Sessions 3 and 6 for midcourse check and final project, I try to "sit back" and allow participants to provide peer feedback and discussions about the projects and their development. I add comments, sometimes privately, if something is missing and/ or appears to need explanation. Then I provide detailed feedback, on the rubric, to each individual. Since some work is late being turned in, I'm really "swamped" to get feedback to participants in a timely manner. I'd love suggestions to help make this more manageable. || (Brandy) If you have the resources-give this a try...I set up both of my laptops side by side. I opened up D2L on both. On one I open up the project from the dropbox-on the other I open up a rubric and name it after the participant. I read through the project-make notes on the rubric and save it. On the "rubric" computer I enter the dropbox and attach the file. I copy/paste a "a see attached rubric for details" message in the textbox and save (sometimes this message varies if someone really messed up.) I open up a Excel doc. and enter their grade for later upload. As for late submissions, I dont begin to grade till the submissions are due. I first send an email to everyone who has not submitted, grade them in the order they were submitted, and give myself a few sit down sessions to grade them. Hope this helps. || (Janet) - I like to think that I discipline myself to manage as many of my facilitation tasks as possible before the course begins. Before the course begins, I create a folder for the course, review and edit the skeletal drafts for each week's welcome emails, access the class list to create my spreadsheet and Outlook distribution list, create all news items and set opening dates, and even create the certificates of completion in advance, so I am not distracted by these tasks while I focus on the Discussions each week. Still, evaluating and replying to the discussion posts takes me much longer than I think it should. I chose "Asking Questions" as one strategy for this course project because I really want to make this work take me less time to complete. I find it a real challenge to find ways to get participants to make that reply substantive. || ( Katie) I am using more probing questions than in the past. I think experience has helped me to learn how to do this better. || **(Peggy) I find my most challenging week is Session 6 when the final projects must be graded, certificates sent, replies made to discussion forum, email reminders sent for missing tasks and final survey, and grades posted. Since I use the comment feature for the final projects, this means that I spend a lot of time on each project. This session takes a great deal of time. I try to streamline all of this but still feel as if I could find a better way to complete all of the end-of-course tasks.** || (Tina) Have you thought about preparing the certificates of completion ahead of time ? || (Kathy) One challenge that I face is dealing with emails only once. That is one of the tips In "11 Tips for Time Management in a Web Worker World". They suggest that if you can answer it in less than 2 minutes, you should do it then. If not, you should assign the appropriate action to in and not look at it again until you are ready to act on it. I do find myself reading and re-reading emails.  Another issue I struggle with is reading and evaluating the final projects. I usually read through the project several times at different settings before I actually compose feedback. I like to get a feel for how the projects are going, but that results in me reading the same ones again and again, when I probably should have just provided the feedback and moved on.  This may sound strange, but I think that I may access the course too much. If I get a free minute, I log on, check the discussion, answer an email or two, and then log off. I do this many times a day. I think it would be more productive to set a side a long block of time to work on the course each day, and leave it alone until that time. || **(Peggy) I use the comment feature in Word to make comments on each section of the projects. That way I can make comments on the ones I have read, save it, and return to it later to grade the other sections. This has saved me from rereading the projects.**

**( Debbie) I take care of any emails that I can from my Blackberry when I am away from my computer. If I have taken care of them, I remove them from my phone. Once I download emails to my computer that need attention, I mark them with a red flag, then when I have taken care of them, I check them off and file them. This takes very little time and it is easy to see what needs to be taken care of when I have the time to sit at my computer and get my emails caught up. It does require looking at them more than once though. ** || (Katie) I am really bad to say yes when I should say no. As I have gotten older I just can't pull everything off. I let immediate things supercede former duties. || (Janet) - I've tried saying, "I can help you with that" rather than "I can do that" more. (Patsy) I agree with Janet sometimes you just have to say I wish I could do ... but right now it is just impossible. It is hard but sometimes we just have to do this for our own sanity. || (Tina) I already follow most of the suggestions for time management that were given in the articles so my “administrative” aspects of facilitation are under control. My biggest concern, when considering time management, is the amount of time I spend in the discussion. Although I know it isn’t a good idea, I try to respond to each individual for each discussion. Sometimes it takes lots of time and effort to develop probing questions to posting such as “Great idea – I think I’ll try that”. I remember that it was suggested that we not respond to all and let the participants fill in the gap and I am trying to do that, but at the same time I always receive positive feedback at the end of my courses regarding the appreciation felt about my many responses – so I am in a dilemma … || (Barb) I also spend lots of time responding to discussion postings -- but I'm doing better! In the Orientation and Session One, I respond to each original posting and may add other comments as well. In Session Two, I respond to many, but not necessarily to each original posting; I look for those who haven't received a response and those that need a probing question added to stimulate their thinking. In Sessions 3 and 6, I pretty much comment about all of the items being added to the original postings and mention anything that yet needs to be added. I also follow the PQP format and add comments to keep peer feedback inline with PQP. || ** (Debbie) My biggest challenges appear during Session Six. No matter how well prepared I think I am, something always drags me down during this session. I always plan to have the certificates ready but my time management skills find me putting this off. Then I have projects to grade, discussion to post, DropIO discussions to respond to, sending email reminders to those who have missing work, checking for completion of final surveys, and posting grades. I would appreciate any ideas that would enable me to accomplish these tasks in a more efficient manner and not feel so stressed! ** || (Nona) I noticed that no one had replied to you and I think it is for a reason. You are absolutely one of the most "have it together" facilitators that I know. If you haven't figured out a more time effiecient method of wrapping up the final session, then I'm sure that there isn't one. You always make it look easy. Other than archiving final messages for reuse from course to course and preparing certificates ahead of time, which is not always easy, the only other time saver that I can think of is making an effort to complete tasks as you go rather than waiting to do them all at once. Some participants always have their final assignments in as soon as the session opens. Their quick response provides the opportunity to do some grading at the beginning of the week rather than waitint until the end of Session 6. || (Jim) My biggest challenge comes in Session Six, as noted by Debbie. I think I am well positioned to close out the course, but particularly in the most recent course, I found there were gaps in student work that created a stall. I think I will be more mindful and relentless in my communication to these types of participants in the future, i.e., be more insistent of expectations earlier, rather than later. But would be interested in any tips and/or tricks others might suggest. ||  || (Rhonda) Like many of you Session Six is my biggest challenge. There are several tasks to complete during this session however I feel completing the certificates always bogs me down. I intend to complete them earlier in the next course I facilitate but I also feel there has to be a faster more efficient way to complete this task. I would deeply appreciate any suggestions.

(Linda) Usually the places I run out of time are sessions 3 and 6. Session three is almost worse than six because I know another week of discussions are coming in while I am checking in projects from the drop box. The summaries are also a struggle every time the course runs. I make a chart in word for the orientation for participants' names, counties, and subject areas and that takes no time because I use a paper version during the orientation and then just transfer the info to the doc. The rest are hard to complete with everything else seeming to be more important to get finished. || (Linda) I try to do the certificates after the dust has settled as far as drops and no shows. I have a folder for each run of the course in word and make a sub folder for certificates. I then make two folders called word and PDF. I open the template in word and adjust the dates. Then I have my paper grade book with participants' first and last names. I type the first name on the certificate and do save as and use the last name as the file name. Then I just backspace the name out and add the new one then save as and use that last name. I do all of them this way. Then after I am finished I open each one, click on print and choose "cute PDF" (a program I downloaded to convert word docs to PDFs) and save them into the PDF folder I made. Then at the end of the course when I send out my final emails the PDFs are ready to attach to the email. This probably sounds like it takes a while but now that I have it down it doesn't take long at all. || (Patsy) My biggest challenge is the first week (orientation) when I am responding to everyone's orignial post. I sometimes find it hard to find different things to say to them. I try to find something about their post to respond to in a personal way and it is sometimes hard not to say the same thing over and over. This is an important time because I am trying to start out with a connection and on a positive note.