What are some strategies for keeping large group facilitation on track online?

1 Define the purpose and outcomes

Before you start your online facilitation, you need to have a clear purpose and desired outcomes for your session. What are you trying to achieve? What are the main topics or questions you want to cover? How will you measure the success of your facilitation? Having a clear direction and scope will help you design your agenda, select your methods, and communicate your expectations to your participants. It will also help you stay focused and avoid distractions or deviations from your goals.

3 Set the ground rules and norms

To keep your online facilitation on track, you need to establish some ground rules and norms for your participants. These are the expectations and behaviors that you want them to follow during your session. For example, you may ask them to mute their microphones when not speaking, use the raise hand feature to indicate they want to speak, respect different opinions and perspectives, or use a specific hashtag or emoji to signal their agreement or disagreement. You need to communicate these rules and norms at the beginning of your session, remind them throughout, and enforce them if necessary.

4 Use a variety of methods and activities

One of the challenges of online facilitation is to keep your participants engaged and interested in your session. You don't want them to lose attention, get bored, or multitask. To avoid this, you need to use a variety of methods and activities that suit your purpose and outcomes. For example, you may use polls, quizzes, surveys, or games to check their understanding, gather their opinions, or break the ice. You may use breakout rooms, fishbowls, world cafes, or open spaces to encourage small group discussions, sharing, or collaboration. You may use stories, visuals, or metaphors to illustrate your points, spark curiosity, or inspire action.

6 Summarize and follow up with your participants

Finally, to keep your online facilitation on track, you need to summarize and follow up with your participants after your session. This means that you need to recap the main points, outcomes, and actions of your session, and thank your participants for their contributions and participation. You also need to provide them with any relevant resources, materials, or links that they may need to continue their learning or work. You may also ask them to complete a survey, evaluation, or reflection on your facilitation, and share their suggestions, insights, or questions. This will help you improve your facilitation skills, measure your impact, and maintain your relationship with your participants.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?