Tips for Effective Interprofessional Facilitation
- Be prepared
- Know your learners and “invest in the beginning”
- Create a safe and open environment
- Understand and respond to group dynamics
- Encourage diplomacy and allow for various opinions
- Be a positive role model for IP collaboration
- Monitor the situation
- Maintain neutrality and sensitivity
- Focus the conversation on IP practice and collaboration
- Have closure
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Be Prepared for “Flying Blind”
- Know that you will not have access to many of the sensory skills you use in the F2F setting
- Consider how the foundations of your F2F IPE Facilitation skills will transfer to the online environment
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Don’t let technology take over
- The more complex it is the more likely there will be “bumps” – go with the flow
- Develop contingency plans that will allow collaboration to move forward in the face of glitches
- Provide support and give learners adequate time to work with new applications and technology: keep tasks very simple at the start to reduce anxiety
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Be explicit, be clear:
- Expectations about homework, participation and other areas may need to be spelled out very clearly, in multiple places, multiple times
- Simple netiquette rules (e.g. introducing yourself before you speak in a synchronous environment, avoiding use of CAPITALS in the asynchronous setting) should be addressed and consider providing ahead of time
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Make sure the IPE Collaborative process gets it’s due:
- Look to connect process elements to tasks to deepen collaboration and group development
- Understand that learners may be drawn to the relatively safe structure of a task in the unfamiliar online world. Challenge and support them to address both task and process elements.
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Expect IPE group processes may take longer:
- Allow for extra time for learners to find their way in this new world. They will likely spend considerable time at first contributing from their own professional view points
- Watch for signs that the group is feeling greater comfort: asking each other questions, disagreeing with each other, taking leadership
- Foster the IP group process development through implicit (and explicit) encouragement as well as modeling
- Consider following-up with quieter participants through 1:1 contact to support and develop approaches to build their comfort and participation
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Make full use of your Co-Facilitator (if applicable):
- If you have a co-facilitator, use them for modeling collaborative practice, content or process support, tech support and mentorship
- Ensure you both do reflective debriefing after every module
- If you do not have a co-facilitator, be open about your need for support from others
- Continue to reflect to allow growth from activity to activity
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Take full advantage of what the online environment offers:
- The online setting has a lot to offer that the F2F setting does not
- Seize every opportunity to bring in online resources, tools, videos that enhance the collaborative learning
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Created by: Elizabeth Hanna, Interprofessional Education Specialist, University Health Network