Virtual Facilitation Skills for Service Development (5 cr)

Learning outcomes

Having completed this study unit you will be able to:

• explain the principles of facilitation and what is facilitation in different contexts, including virtual environments
• analyze and compare the roles of facilitator and service designer
• classify facilitation competences, methods and tools, and to master their business applications
• identify goals of facilitation in developing business
• plan a facilitated workshop process that interlinks facilitation goals and implementation with expected development outcomes

Location and time

The course consists of three contact sessions, a pre-assignment and a learning assignment. The course's learning environment in Canvas will be published 17th September. There will be instructions for a pre-assignment that is to be completed by the first contact session.

The preliminary contents of the lectures is listed below. It is still subject to change, e.g. until the number of enrolled students is known.
- Practicalities of the course, lecture about facilitation (facilitation in different fields, central concepts); discussing students' experiences and expectations; group exercise based on pre-reading literature on facilitation, instructions for the learning assignment
- Practical facilitation exercises and tools & methods, further instructions and tutoring for the learning assignment
- Guidance of learning assignments
- Presentations of the learning assignments, reflection, feedback

Between the contact days the students are expected to work on the learning assignment. The learning assignment consists of planning, implementing and reporting a facilitated service design workshop in which the theories and methods are applied to practice.

Materials

The recommended literature will be announced in Canvas on 17th September - there will be a selection of books and articles to choose from according to student's own learning goals.

Teaching methods

Having completed this study unit the student will be able to:
- explain the principles of facilitation and what is facilitation in different contexts, including virtual environments
- analyze and compare the roles of facilitator and service designer
- classify facilitation competences, methods and tools, and to master their business applications
- identify goals of facilitation in developing business
- plan a facilitated workshop process that interlinks facilitation goals and implementation with expected development outcomes

Employer connections

The study unit includes a learning assignment to be carried out in collaboration with a worklife partner. The students are expected to organize a partner for the development task through their own networks. The partner can be a company, organization, association or a community.

The learning assignment includes planning, organizing, and reporting a facilitated workshop. Detailed instructions will be given in the first lecture.

Exam schedules

Changes may apply.
There will be 3 contact sessions:
Wednesday 2.10. (16:30–19:30) Zoom
Wednesday 16.10. (16:30–19:30) Zoom
Thursday 12.12. (16:30–19:30) Zoom

There will also be an optional Q&A session with the teachers on Monday 28.10. at 11:00 am - 12:00 noon in Zoom.

Please note that the course's learning environment in Canvas will be published 17th September. There will be instructions for a pre-assignment that is to be completed by the first contact session.

Evaluation scale

H-5