As an experiment, we recruited fourteen regional groups of 5 to 20 members (131 people in total) who agreed to meet face to face with a local facilitator in coffee shops or living rooms outside the MOOC, or hold local discussions online using Zoom.
Some small group participants also contributed to discussions in the whole group MOOC. The facilitators were senior practitioners from local cooperative or solidarity economy organizations. In turn, the facilitators recruited local participants for the small group and others for the larger MOOC. We mentored the facilitators with phone and skype calls and one zoom webinar. Many found these groups helpful.
Here are some definitions for these group types …
We want to offer this small group format again alongside future MOOCS, as it combines the action-oriented and critical practice features of Synergia workshops, with the peer to peer sharing and internationalism of the MOOC format.
If you want to form a local group in 2020 please contact us when you register for the next offering of the Synergia MOOC.
You and the Synergia Partnership Going Forwards
The Synergia Institute is incorporated as a non-profit multi-stakeholder educational co-operative. Many participants in the 2019 MOOC, including especially some key high and mid-level network leaders representing major international organizations, believe development and expansion of the co-op membership would make strategic sense based on their experience.
There is a very real potential to present and position the MOOC (including the partnership with Athabasca University and other educators) in a way that extends our systems change mission to a broad international constituency struggling for a better future.