For almost a decade our Facilitation Learning Online (FLO) courses have supported post-secondary educators in honing their online facilitation skills. Since March 2020 BCcampus has hosted 66 FLO offerings to 4,009 participants. While some instructors and students may be excited about returning to face-to-face course delivery on campus, many enjoyed the flexibility of online learning and would like the option to continue. No one said it better than our outgoing executive director, Mary Burgess, during their opening keynote at the BCcampus HyFlex ReAction event in February 2022:
“We have learned so much in the past two years. There are very few people who want to go back to the way things were — many of us recognize the before times were problematic and that we need to do better. I feel hope rising. I feel the wisdom of experience and collective problem solving starting to come together.
One of the ways we try to do better is to demonstrate, through our choices about program and instructional design, a commitment to student success regardless of the disruption in the world, in the life of the student, in the life of a faculty member.”
The FLO offerings planned for the remainder of the year address some of these challenges and choices. We also want to contribute to the development of digital literacy among our educators.
“Programming for FLO is constantly evolving to meet the needs of educators and students in B.C. post-secondary. Through the pandemic we focused first on emergency remote teaching, then quick and focused online course redesign, then HyFlex design and delivery, and now folks can expect to see a focus on digital literacy and all that entails for students and educators. We have learned and re-learned a lot through these past couple of years, and we hope and believe things will be different going forward, and we want FLO to reflect and support that.”
— Tracy Roberts, director, Learning + Teaching
You can deepen your FLO learning and develop digital literacy skills by registering for one of three kinds of FLO events:
- FLO MicroCourses: Intensive one-week courses focused on high-interest, useful topics ($25 registration fee)
- FLO Fridays: One-hour facilitated online synchronous sessions (free, with registration required; all sessions are recorded)
- FLO Labs: Three-hour experiential and interactive synchronous workshops (free, with registration required; some sessions are recorded)
Here is the schedule of FLO events in the coming months, with some already open for registration:
| July 2022 | July 18–24: FLO MicroCourse: Considerations to Indigenize Your Work July 27: 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., FLO Lab: SPLOTapalooza! |
| August 2022 | August 22–28: FLO MicroCourse: Make Your Course Intro Video August 31: 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., FLO Lab: Rubrics Rubrics Rubrics |
| September 2022 | September 2: 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., FLO Friday: Designing for Authenticity — Aligning Assessment with Intended Learning Outcomes September 19–25: FLO MicroCourse – Hybrid Learning |
| October 2022 | October 7: 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., FLO Friday — Anti-racist Teaching Practices October 12: 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., FLO Lab – Staying Current with Essential Digital Literacy October 17–23: FLO MicroCourse: More than Words – Anti-racism Pedagogies October 24–30: FLO MicroCourse: Design Your Own Authentic Assessment |
| November 2022 | November 18: 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., FLO Friday — Inductive Learning: Designing Activities to Learn through Examples November 23: 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., FLO Lab — Universal Design for Learning, POUR, and Digital Accessibility |
| December 2022 | December 2: 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., FLO Friday — Powerful Questions to Facilitate Online Learning and Strengthen Relationships December 5 – 11: FLO MicroCourse: Current Topics in Micro-credentials 2.0 |
| January 2022 | January 16–22: FLO MicroCourse: Digital Literacy: Developing Your Personal Learning Network January 25: 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., FLO Lab: Recognition, Relationship, and Resilience: A Framework for Trauma-Informed Post-Secondary Education |
| February 2023 | February 6–12: FLO MicroCourse: Write a Compelling Discussion Prompt |
| March 2023 | March 3: 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., FLO Friday: Community Building Strategies |
Throughout the summer you can participate in the FLO Bootcamp 2022 Summer Series. We will offer drop-in office hours for Bootcamp participants on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. PT. Watch our newsletter for more information in the coming weeks.
We also have a series of FLO Tech Tool Tips to support your digital literacy development.
You can learn more about our fabulous FLO facilitators, starting with our latest new FLO family members, Taruna Goel and Dr. Nicki Rehn.
Don’t see what you need or like? Reach out to Helena Prins, an advisor on the Learning and Teaching team, who would welcome input and ideas to expand our FLO offerings!
The featured image for this post (viewable in the BCcampus News section at the bottom of our homepage) is by Pineapple Supply Co.