QUESTION: In your opinion, are the competencies needed by e-facilitators the same across industries or are they industry-specific; for example, would health care professionals need different competencies?

Murphy: The fundamental skills that e-facilitators need to effectively transfer skills and knowledge to learners are common to all industries. (See also "E-Learning Competencies.") However, there are higher-order skills that facilitators must master, which will vary with the learning audience. For example, although IT trainers can be competent without a specific educational background, facilitators of medical training may need to be MDs so that learners trust that they're getting accurate information.

Voci: I believe that e-facilitator competencies are generally the same for all professions and that training results are best achieved using approaches that make learning relevant to the participants. In e-learning, the facilitator's skills are going to be tested upward. That is, the higher the expertise in the learner group, the more facilitator expertise will be required in order to demonstrate credibility. There's no substitute for experience, either. The absence of face-to-face contact further necessitates that the information given be succinct, clear, and understandable to learners.

Parkin: A good e-facilitator will be able to draw out participants' own experiences and help people learn from each other. There's nothing new there: it's true of the classroom, the virtual classroom, and the asynchronous environment, and it's true across professions and subject areas. Facilitation skills aside, learners are motivated by facilitators who have credibility, which comes from experience, a true understanding of the subject matter, and (sometimes, in cases like healthcare or law) certification.

If an online facilitator is moderating a real-time virtual classroom, less subject knowledge and experience may be required, because the environment probably doesn't allow many probing questions from learners. If a facilitator is engaged in a blend of synchronous and asynchronous training, the required level of subject matter expertise and experience ratchets up exponentially. Such online communication is more personal, intimate, and unrelenting than classroom or virtual classroom communication. Questions are specific and answers must be unambiguous: There is more time and opportunity for learners to pursue lines of thought and request examples of practical application. The higher the level of your learner group, the more expert the facilitator must be. But the non-subject-matter competencies required remain, I think, pretty consistent no matter what the profession.

Published: February 2002