On Going Virtual
For many in the educational sector, the coronavirus pandemic presented challenges transitioning from in-person learning to virtual learning. We knew key elements of our program---synchronous, participatory, peer-directed activities and practices-- were instrumental for participants to produce strong grants and resilient fundraising skills. Given that our participants come from around the globe and many are brand new at fundraising, we recognized that to uphold these key elements in a virtual world we needed to ask more of ourselves as facilitators.
So, we scheduled live, virtual sessions in the early mornings in order to align with late afternoon or evening time zones in Europe, Asia and Africa. We made our sessions 90 minutes long and scheduled them at least one week apart to reduce stress and to acknowledge existing challenges in our pandemic lives. Attendance was required because the interaction among the group was fundamental to learning, and we chipped in with funds to defray internet access fees when needed. In breakout rooms participants critiqued mentor texts and assessed one another’s grants week by week. As a whole group, we discussed academic articles and played instructional, non-competitive games to add variety and enhance community. We also provided real-time office hours for participants who asked for additional guidance.
Essentially, our objective was to uphold a strategy of reciprocal learning when students participate together sharing knowledge, ideas and experience, rather than passively watching a webinar with hundreds of others, or spending hours on the world wide web reading ‘how to write a grant’ articles. We heard that our virtual learning approach was a good one; participants looked forward to the community-learning and reported benefiting greatly from real-time mutual workshop-type experiences in which they could shape a grant proposal over time with others at predetermined due dates, rather than in isolation. They reported that real-time connection to the facilitators and peers, along with the variety of activities kept them engaged and motivated. By the end of the course, participants stated they had completed their best grant proposal to date and created a community of peers to remain connected to.
