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Facilitators

For Facilitators

Responsibilities of KCTL In addition to the Winter Workshop and other one-off workshops, KCTL hosts around 15-20 Faculty Interest Groups (FIGs) each semester. Ryan McKinney, Director of KCTL, and Jocelyn Figueroa, KCTL Assistant, work with faculty and staff, who serve as FIG facilitators, to develop, support, coordinate, and promote these FIGs. As part of this work, KCTL:

  • Maintains this website with descriptions of each FIG and links to Academic Commons Sites where FIG work is documented each semester.
  • Sends out flyers to promote each FIG that contain links to doodle polls so that those interested in participating can indicate their availability and FIG facilitators can schedule accordingly.
  • Sends out Next Week at KCTL emails each week to promote participation in FIGs.
  • Provides a meeting place and refreshments, and copies materials when on campus.
  • Create pre- and post-semester surveys for each FIG, so that facilitators can set goals and assess impact.
  • Maintains records regarding the number of participants across FIGs to determine KCTL's reach.
  • Surveys all participants for feedback at the end of each academic year to gather feedback that helps inform our work.

Responsibilities of FIG Facilitators
As a FIG facilitator, we ask you to attend a Facilitators Meeting, usually held toward the end of the semester.

With respect to your FIG, we ask you to be responsible for doing the following:

 Prior to launching the FIG, please...

  • Work with the Ryan to create or update the KCTL website for your FIG with text and a digital photo of yourself (sample FIG webpage).
  • Work with Jocelyn to create or update a flyer (Sample FIG Flyer.jpg) to promote your FIG.
  • Design and prep a minimum of three meetings for the semester.
  • Document your work. We will create a site on the CUNY Academic Commons for each FIG. Your webpage will link to your Commons site. Please edit the homepage of this site, adding a description of your FIG and pictures, if you'd like (sample Commons homepage). KCeL has kindly created a video, How to Edit the Home Page of a FIG, to help you do this. If you need further assistance, please contact Ryan or Jocelyn.
  • Create a doodle or google poll with your available meeting times and send the link to it to Jocelyn, who will embed it in your flyer and email your flyer to all faculty and staff during the first two weeks of classes.
  • Once your flyer has gone out, check responses to your doodle poll (don't wait too long of responders' availability might change!) and schedule your meetings with Jocelyn, who will put them on the calendar. If you have a number of people available at two different times, please consider offering each session twice in order to accommodate more folks; it only takes an extra hour to facilitate a session that has already been designed. Note: When we are on campus, face-to-face meetings take place in KCTL or, if relevant, KCeL. As FIGs are KCTL events, meetings do not take place outside of those options.  Please be sure to check that we have a room available before you tell participants your planned face-to-face meeting times. Virtual meetings can be delivered via zoom or Webex.
  • Create a group email for those who responded to your poll; you can then add additional people who come to the meetings so you can keep in touch with your core group.

When you are facilitating the FIG, please...

  • Email Pre-Semester Survey links, which we will send, to your participants
  • If on campus, manage FIG Sign in Sheets (make sure everyone signs and please give to Jocelyn). If your meeting is virtual, for each meeting, please send Jocelyn an email with the names of participants, their departments, and roles (e.g., full or part-time faculty, staff, student).
  • Let Jocelyn know if you have a particular description for a session, or a link to a reading, that you would like to be included in our Next Week and KCTL email (KCTL Newsletter Sample.pdf) on the Tuesday BEFORE the week your FIG will be running. These emails are created on Wednesday and sent out on Thursday for FIGs running the following week.
  • Facilitate meetings in a way that ensures that everyone is in a safe space to share.
  • Facilitate meetings in a way that keeps the focus on solutions to challenges presented by teaching and learning at KCC. It's fine for participants to vent about challenges, if relevant, but ultimately, we want to look for ways to address those challenges.
  • After each session, post meeting notes on the CUNY Academic Commons page for your FIG; this needs to be ongoing. Here is a video, again with thanks to KCeL, on How to Report Sessions on FIG Sites. Two key things to keep in mind about the posting on the Commons pages: you must be logged in (your username and password on upper right hand corner), and you need to categorize your post by semester before you publish it. If you need any additional help, please see Ryan or Jocelyn.
  • When your meetings are finished, please email the Post-Semester Survey links to your participants.

Interested in becoming a KCTL Facilitator?
KCTL runs a limited number of Faculty Interest Groups (FIGs) each semester. If you have an idea that is not addressed by a current FIG and would like to start and facilitate a new group, please contact Ryan McKinney at ryan.mckinney@kbcc.cuny.edu or ext. 4809 the semester or module before you would like to offer your FIG.

Ryan will meet with you to discuss your idea to see if it is appropriate for a FIG. Please note that all FIGs should be focused on teaching and learning, and please come with an idea of what your meetings would look like and what materials you would use. Please also note that faculty may only facilitate a FIG with the approval of their chair.