GTCoP - Community of Practice Training for Gender Equality

Dear all,

Thank you for the question about the "Forum Theater". Here you have a video recorded during the last F2F Gender Academy delivered at the ICTILO Turin Campus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=KvW0ULXkJ0I

From the "Working Paper on Online Training and Feminist Pedagogies: Key findings, challenges, opportunities and recommendations", UNWTC :  

GOOD PRACTICE SNAPSHOT 4 | Be ambitious and experimental with online methodologies
As demonstrated in ITC-ILO’s work, some of the dynamics of a face-to-face Forum Theatre approach can be replicated in an online environment. While long performances are not feasible, many of the games used in this type of work can be used online. Techniques can be used to make it appear that the facilitators/actors are together, as well as indicating when they are off/onstage, and when facilitating/not facilitating. This is currently being used in the context of C190 in order to guide participants to come up with fictional scenarios to identify unacceptable behaviour in the workplace.

VR training: download the podcast attached to know more

Claudia, ITCILO

I will address these questions in turn:

1. What are the key recommendations or design considerations that should be taken on board by organizers of online training that directly address the digital gender divide? – Mirko

I think the most important thing is to keep the tools as simple and accessible as possible. This means avoiding the use of too many different platforms, complicated software, etc. Also, the training should be designed to allow for participants to be able to turn their cameras off when necessary in order to save bandwidth. Another important aspect to consider is how to keep checking in on participants who have bad quality internet connection, so that they feel included as best as possible. Often this can be done by sending a private message in the chat.

2. In this part of the world I live (Nigeria), poor internet connectivity and poor electricity supply is a major barrier to effective online learning! – Aishatu

I understand, and it is very frustrating for everyone concerned. We need to keep trying to work out what kinds of online trainings might work best for people with unstable internet connection and electricity supply. Let's keep talking...

3. I find the poor internet connection for the people I work with to be the biggest challenge. It makes it really hard for them to contribute their thoughts. The chat function overcomes some of it but if English is not their main language they are again limited. Are there any platforms that work better than others? It feels like the platforms are geared towards people living in cities in the west and don’t allow for low bandwidths. – Sarah

I think we still have a lot of work to do in this area. I try to use the most simple tools to avoid requiring additional bandwith. As you say, the chat function is useful, but we need to come up with better ideas about how to deal with this.

4. I think that the last point that Lucy made is really crucial and wonder about the linkages between academic publishing companies and educational technologies? There’s so much that requires feminist transformation and democratization/decolonization in the academic publishing industry and I have the feeling that similar issues arise within businesses offering online educational services. – Joanna

Yes, this is an interesting parallel, thank you Joanna.

6. Do you make your exit questionnaire anonymous? We have had some trouble where some people can be quite mean in their anonymous feedback surveys. Differently from when trainings were in person. Almost like it is an extension of some of the online bullying - when a trainer is online, they seem like less of a person, and people don’t feel as bad. – Lindsey

Lindsey, this is a great question. I think perhaps it would be interesting to explore this with a specialist in evaluation and ask for their thoughts. We could speak to Nicola Popovic, for example, who wrote the Training Centre's Evaluation Tool.

6. Can you please also recommend some examples of exit questionnaires and online energizers? – Ritu

Thanks Ritu. I think there are some really good resources around for this. For example, the Cynara icebreakers toolkit. https://mailchi.mp/dd534ea76a58/icebreaker

As for exit questionnaires, you can get some good samples from the Training Centre Manual https://portal.trainingcentre.unwomen.org/resource-centre/entry/161823/ and the Evaluation Tool https://portal.trainingcentre.unwomen.org/resource-centre/entry/51633/. These can be easily adapted for online trainings using Google Forms or other online questionnaires.

Hope this is helpful!

Lucy

8. I found polling and polling results quite engaging as well as the strategy of Spontaneous participant engagement. kept them awake. – Caroline

Thanks Caroline. More and more, what I think works well is to change the dynamics fairly often. For example, to mix up activities between solo, pairs, small groups and plenary work. Also, to intersperse quick activities such as quizzes, surveys etc.

It would be great to create an online source to share all of these.

Many thanks for your comment Drissa.

I think we need to work harder to understand very clearly the boundaries and limits to online training. In some cases courses may need to be simplified so we can find other kinds of interaction - e.g. through questionnaires, discussion forums and quizzes, etc. We may need to think about how asynchronous online training can take the pressure off internet connections.

Lots more work to do!

Thank you so much for your replies Lucy and Claudia! I have added a link to the recording of the Webinar at the top of this forum thread.