Facilitation guides function as the “lesson plans” for delivering educational strategies in a residential curriculum or curricular approach. Facilitation guides are detailed plans that provide all of the information necessary so that anyone with the appropriate level of training and skills could execute the planned strategy. A department or division that has a fully realized a curriculum will have a catalog of facilitation guides upon which to draw when executing their educational plans for the academic year.
When developing a curriculum, it is common to seek examples of facilitation guides from which to draw inspiration. Be cautious when doing this, however, because facilitation guides are often developed to fit the unique learning objectives and educational plans of the authoring department or institution. Although they may give you ideas for your pedagogy, make sure they fit with the outcomes you have outlined for your students.
There are a number of professional bodies and non-profits that may provide facilitation guides around specific competencies or topics. College student leadership development literature, for example, has numerous guides that can be adapted. If you are looking for more specific divisional or departmental facilitation guides developed by peer institutions, however, you may find few examples online. The Departments of Residence Life at North Dakota State University And Miami University both provide some examples (NDSU Examples, MU Examples). If you are looking for more examples, you may consider posting to the Residential Curriculum and Curricular Approaches Facebook group or reach out to a past Institute on the Curricular Approach Showcase Institution from this list.
Because a curriculum is holistic, many institutions or departments, may also package their entire curriculum and facilitation guides into a workbook for their staff. These workbooks include week-by-week guides as well as additional development around timely topics and the facilitation guides needed for the execution of the entire curriculum over the course of an academic year. If you reach out to an institution, they may share some examples of their development.
Explore More Residential Curriculum and Curricular Approach Q&As >
Have a question you want answered about residential curriculum and curricular approaches? Send them my way and I’ll be happy to answer them (or point you in the right direction).
Pb 