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Warm-ups for moving online

Here are some 'warm up' actions to take before you move online, and while you do your business planning.

Do an online learning course or activity yourself, preferably using the type of technologies/software you intend to use with your community.

Immerse yourself in the online world and seek out others who are working in similar areas. Join open online communities like the Networks of the Australian Flexible Learning (AFL) Community or Learning Times, or ones specifically for your State such as the TAFE VC or mc2 in Victoria (ask your Flexible Learning Leaders if you’re not sure if your State has one).

Identify ‘good practitioners’ in your field and talk to them about what they are doing and why.

Resources and professional development

Find out what resources and/or professional development opportunities are available to you in your organisation and put your hand up to access them. (Check out the Community Funding Centre at Our Community, the Knowledge Tree e-Journal, LearnScope and Reframing the Future projects).

Make time to plan your own professional development (PD) strategy; a good place to start is Flexways (go straight to the skills checklist if you are pushed for time) and George Siemen’s website.

Access and read resources about facilitating communities online. The websites of Gilly Salmon and Nancy White are good starting points.

The Australian Flexible Learning Framework has a good list of references for professional development.

Tips for moving online

Adapting your teaching models and styles

Start thinking about the 'online component’ of your community activities as a core activity, not ‘just an add on’.Integrate it into your normal practice.
Look at what e-tools you already use and consider how you might extend those uses to communicate with your community members eg. collect email addresses from your community members and send regular newsletters online (saves postage).
Decide how to facilitate your community's activities and what tools you’ll need to do so i.e. whether to use discussion boards, blogs, voice or text chats etc or a blend.
Think about what you plan to do from your own, your colleagues and, of course, your participants’ perspectives.
Finally, take some time to consider how you will model what you consider to be ‘best practice’, in whatever form that takes.

Workload and policies

Consider how you are going to manage your online workload. Here are some further hints for being prepared.

Check, or decide on, your organisation’s software policy. Consider how certain decisions might limit your ability to use certain tools, and try to keep your options open.