Introduction

Online community developers and facilitators tend to evaluate their activities and events for various reasons. Among these reasons are maintaining a community’s effectiveness and sustainability and to further engage participants and members (Left, 2010). Website administrators and moderators have different approaches on how to plan activities and how to increase people’s awareness of tasks and events and enhance their engagement.

The main objective of this assignment is to evaluate my online community event “Obesity Endemicity” from my own reflections and feedback provided by participants. Aspects to be considered include personal presence, environment, participant engagement, collaboration and feedback from participants.

Tools used to collect data and information:

1. Online tools

a. Surveymonkey was utilized to conduct a survey in which nine relevant questions were provided to be answered by participants.

Survey summary

Start date: 13th June, 2010

End date: 25th June, 2010

Total respondents: 11

Total completed survey: 100%

The survey can be accessed at:

http://obesity-endemicity.yolasite.com/evaluation-and-feedback/evaluation-and-feedback-survey

b. A discussion forum was also utilized to remind participants to do the survey. The following is the link to the location of the reminder:

FACILITATING ONLINE COMMUNITIES (906.708-101A) > DISCUSSION BOARD > CAN WE TEACH A CORPORATE DOG NEW TRICKS? >

2. Personal interviews: three participants were individually interviewed and asked a number of questions in connection with my online community activities in terms of personal presence, participant engagement and collaboration

3. Collaborative feedback utilizing a blog on a website set up for this purpose and to provide backup for my online activity. Participants were encouraged to indicate any issues regarding the effectiveness and usefulness of my online community. The discussion can be accessed at:

http://obesity-endemicity.yolasite.com/evaluation-and-feedback/discussion-space

Purpose of the event

To increase participants’ awareness of how serious and scary obesity can be. It is considered by many to be an endemic phenomenon in New Zealand (WHO report as cited in Ministry of Health, 2009).

The objectives of my online community comprehensively included the following:
• to be aware of a range of causative factors
• to look at some predisposing and risk factors
• to be familiar with certain possible preventive measures

I particularly chose this topic for many reasons. Basically I recognize the endemicity of obesity in New Zealand and I realize how serious this condition can be. I am also fully aware of the fact that obesity is a terrifying syndrome rather than a single disease or abnormality and I am personally “overweight” to an extent. I also realize that many people do agree that obesity is a threatening health problem but might not be aware of certain related facts. The survey I conducted revealed that ten people out of eleven believed that obesity is an important issue to be considered. The image below was retrieved from the survey results and explicitly displays what participants indicated.

Furthermore, eight participants indicated that the topic and contents were clear as the image below demonstrates:

Furthermore, two participants have reported to me personally that obesity is a frightening nightmare to them as some of their children have developed childhood obesity and they were worried of possible future complications. They also indicated how useful the topic is and they have learnt a great deal of knowledge.

Communication and collaboration

It is well recognized that effective communication is an important aspect to be considered regardless of the type of relationship with the other person or group (Health Promotion, 2009). Effective online communication synchronously and asynchronously will require a number of strategies and skills including encouraging meaningful conversation or discussion, using appropriate language, avoiding offensive language and resolving issues. Ten participants out of eleven indicated that the contents, contributions and responses were very appropriate. One participant believed that the contributions and responses were relatively appropriate.

Darren Rowse (2006) indicated that considering a glossary of certain words and terminology is important to consider making one’s own blog inclusive. As a matter of fact a participant suggested that I should have provided a glossary list of certain words used.
Lex Friedman (as cited in Web Worker Daily, 2010) created a comprehensive list of what it takes to manage a community successfully. The list includes patience, networking, communication skills, facilitation, technical skills, self motivation and organization. In reflecting how I facilitated the activity, I honestly do not think I was patient enough at times, but I do believe that I was motivated.
As regards to technical skills, I included images, videos successfully and was able to create a relatively proper community format, layout and configuration.
According to Left (2010) “structured online events or activities can play a very important role in engaging community members and ensuring their regular and active involvement. However, these events must be effective”. Many participants stated that my online activity was well structured and to an extent I was able to encourage community members to participate in online discussion.
Rowse (2006) states that encouraging participation and interaction is significantly essential to create effective online communities. A participant believed that I needed to create more opportunities for further interactions and interactivities. Ten participants out of eleven believed that the discussion motivated their discussion and participation.

Issues and strategies for improvement

Organization:
As I indicated earlier in a post at http://foc2010.pbworks.com I needed at some stages to use my cell phone’s calendar to remind myself of tasks, events and activities. I needed to include the most important tasks first. I also created a list of “Things to Do” on my computer desktop at work and I included lots of items that I had to complete.

Amount of time:
Some aspects required considerable amounts of time to include and complete and therefore I needed to avoid certain discussions, items and articles I wanted to include initially.

Copyrights and IP
I chose an issue that is caused by a number of biological and environmental factors; I needed to include scientific facts supported by evidence and theories. Adding to that, participants had lots of pre-existing knowledge and posted a number of significant concerns and questions. Therefore, I needed to respond correctly and support my answers with proper references. Sometimes I knew the answer and I just could not respond blindly and it was an issue to look for appropriate references and include reliable materials. As regards to the photos I included, the issue was even more distressing. I tried to choose photos that weren’t copyrighted and indeed I was to some extent successful. For the rest of the photos, I tried to include proper APA referencing style.
For the topics and scientific information, I retrieved some reliable resources and compared the information and tried to simplify the knowledge and put things together appropriately.

Areas for further development or application of activities are identified

At the beginning I was planning to create a Wimba classroom to initiate further discussion and interactions but that did not happen. The reason was that I later realized that I needed to utilize the blackboard and to do so I need to ask the administrator or moderator to set up a class for me. That simply meant more commitment and more preparations. It also happened that during that period I was very busy and I realized I did not have enough time to do so.
I also tried to have synchronous chat sessions, but every time I saw someone online and tried to initiate a chat session, they would not respond. I believe I needed to remind them in advance or should have mentioned clearly when I described my event in the first place.
It would have also been a great idea to have included some online games such as “My Pyramid Match Game” for learning purposes and to enhance further interaction.

Areas for further development of own facilitation skills

Kemshal-Bell (as cited in the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, 2003) categorized the roles of facilitators into three main categories being technical skills, facilitation skills, and managerial skills. Facilitation skills include motivational skills, online relationship and team building, provision of directions and support and online discussion managing skills. I believe I should have provided more proper directions to my online activities and mentioned dates and times more accurately and should have been more specific. Next time when I create an online community I will try to create more positive online relationships with participants. Perhaps I need to create an effective online tem as well. I also need to enhance my online presence further to promote more participants’ motivation and engagement.
Left (2010) states that at the end of any activity, facilitators should at least farewell participants and thank them for their contributions. Next time I will certainly warmly welcome participants and at the end of the activity I will deeply thank them for their participation and at I will farewell them. Left (2010) also believes that we may need to ask for a volunteer to enhance true collaboration by initiating new prevailing knowledge. Next time I will ask for that.
I also believe that I owe you an apology as I promised to take you home and provide you with some beautiful Iraqi food in cases of technical problems and other disruptions. Apparently I did not run the supposed Wimba class and I should have followed my proposed plan. I truly hope that next time we can gather in person and discuss matters and issues together in affectionate and friendly approaches in a real space with lots of “healthy” Iraqi food.

References

Australian Flexible Learning Framework. (2003). Effective Online Facilitation. Retrieved June 25, 2010, from http://pre2005.flexiblelearning.net.au/guides/facilitation.html

Health promotion. (2009). Successful communication. Retrieved June 25, 2010, from http://www.ncsu.edu/health_promotion/Stress/communication.html

Left, P. (2010). Evaluating online community activities. Retrieved June 25, 2010, from http://www.verso.co.nz/learning-communities/780/evaluating-online-c...-activities/

Ministry of Health. (2009). Obesity in New Zealand. Retrieved June 23, 2010, from www.moh.govt.nz/obesity

Rowse, D. (2006). 9 ways to make your blog more inclusive. Retrieved June 25, 2010, from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/09/13/9-ways-to-make-your-blog-more-inclusive/

Web Worker Daily. (2010).Online community manager: What does it take to be successful? Retrieved June 25, 2010, from http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/02/02/online-community-manager-what-does-it-take-to-be-successful/