The Role of Faculty in Making Groups Work

A group of adult learners seated at a table in a conference room, smiling and engaged in discussion

Your role may include establishing:

Course climate and social presence
Organization and course design
Assignments and examples
Discussion prompts and format
Rubrics and assessment
Formative feedback
Responsiveness to students

The way that instructors facilitate CORP groups within courses determines their effectiveness. Within the context of teaching in higher education, facilitation includes many aspects of the design of a course.

If you were a coach conducting professional development with a group of educators at a center, you might gather together regularly to facilitate in-person sessions, including guiding participants to prepare and then facilitating by being a part of the conversation during each session.

Because instructors are not able to sit down with each CORP group every time they meet or work together, the role of facilitation becomes more about creating the structure for CORP groups to thrive independently. It also involves identifying important products of the group's work, submitted at various times, to provide instructor formative feedback. Planning to implement this structure and to provide feedback is crucial.