Facilitation Foundations


This 10-week course uses highly interactive activities to build your capacity to facilitate meetings and coalitions that are efficient, effective, and lead to results.

To be a more effective and efficient facilitator, we’ll help you first understand your own facilitation style. You will learn how to anticipate, prevent and intervene in difficult situations to keep the group from derailing and halting progress. Additionally, we will explore structured strategies you can use to generate ideas, evaluate and select ideas, and make a group decision. You’ll learn to help a group meet its goals and take ownership of the process.

Ideal For

Introductory Level

Scholarships Available

A limited number of scholarships are available for individuals working in CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, or WY. Selected recipients will be asked to pay a reduced registration fee of $35 and are expected to fully participate in the course.

Apply for a scholarship. Applications close approximately four weeks before the first live session, and scholarship notifications will be sent three weeks prior.

Questions? Contact our Senior Project Coordinator, Cassidy Ray, at cassidy.ray@cuanschutz.edu.

What to Expect

We use a flipped-classroom approach, so you’ll work through course content independently and then connect with a small cohort of peers biweekly for live learning sessions that provide an opportunity to ask questions, share your knowledge, and learn from others. This learning community promotes networking and self-reflection as part of developing oneself as a facilitator.

5 Live Learning Sessions

  • One live session by Zoom every other week.
  • Each session will include a facilitated discussion among class participants related to that week’s topic. A subject matter expert will lead the discussion, engage participants, and answer questions. Below is the schedule for our live sessions. Successful completion of this course requires your participation in these sessions by video using a webcam or built-in camera on your device. Contact us if you need assistance accessing a webcam.

Weekly Online Learning Activities

Each week, you must complete assigned online learning activities that include reading and watching videos. There will also be a short assignment in preparation for each live learning session that should take about an hour to complete.

Course Access

The course materials will be available 2 weeks before the first live session. You will receive additional instructions at that time. If you don’t see an email (don’t forget to check your spam folder), please contact us at lms.registration.rmphtc@ucdenver.edu. Make sure you sign in prior to your first live session to complete the required activities and ensure you know how to connect with your camera.

Successful Completion

To earn a Certificate of Completion, you must complete the following:

  • Attend 4 out of the 5 live sessions. 
  • Post a minimum of 4 responses to the discussion board. 
  • Complete a 5-minute presentation during session 5 to share your skills. 
  • Complete the post-course evaluation.

Learning Objectives

  1. Self-Assess: Interpret your facilitation style and focus.
  2. Know the Information: Define the 5 types of social power.
  3. Act Appropriately: Compare appropriate facilitator actions at each stage of group development.
  4. Engage Participants: Describe engagement strategies that encourage inclusivity and address power.
  5. Facilitate Group Think: Compare approaches for idea generation, idea evaluation, and decision-making.
  6. Gather Feedback: Describe how to gather and use feedback for continuous improvement of your facilitation.

Length of Learning Opportunity

20 hours over 10 weeks.

Primary Competency

Communication Skills.

Development Partner(s)

This online module was developed with RMC Health Logo

Our Refund Policy

  • If you are unable to attend the course, you must cancel your registration at least 1 day before the first day of training in order to transfer your registration fee to another offering of the same course or receive a refund. You may also transfer your registration to another person.
  • All refunds are subject to an 18% processing fee.
  • If a transfer to a different offering of a training is requested, the funds must be used in the same fiscal year (July 1 - June 30), or they will be automatically refunded, minus an 18% processing fee, at the end of the fiscal year.
  • To cancel, you must send an email to lms.support.rmphtc@ucdenver.edu.



We strive to host inclusive and accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully. Please let us know of any accommodations that will assist your full participation.