Role-sharing for online engagement and ease

Online spaces can be challenging – participants may be distracted, multitasking, or simply worn out by so many online meetings. Sharing roles with participants can not only increase attention and engagement, but also give the group more ownership over the space and free up some mental load for facilitators.

While we’ve seen the benefits of role sharing firsthand, we also know that creating and assigning roles can create more work for the facilitator or confusion for the group. So choose roles that will most serve you, the group, and the goals for the session. Stick to those and have fun with it! 

You can assign roles in various ways. For example: 

• Ask for volunteers for different roles in a registration form or pre-survey 
• Reach out directly to people before the session or in private chat during
• Do an activity during your session like this: On a slide or whiteboard have a list of available roles. Invite participants to type their name or drag and drop their picture next to a role to volunteer.  You can make it a game and see how quickly you can fill all the roles!

Examples of roles we’ve invited participants to hold:

• Lead a stretch 
• Lead a grounding activity
• Timekeeper (or something more specific like “let us all know when there are 10 minutes left” or “let us know when it’s time to take a break”)
• Play DJ (or something more specific like “choose a song for our break” or “choose an exit song”)
• Go first in the closing circle
• Go last in the closing circle
• Track who hasn’t shared and let the facilitator know
• Welcome and update people who join late through private chat
• Scribe on slide for an activity
• Share: a story, object, poem, song, etc.
• Keep an eye on the chat and bring chat comments in verbally
• Troubleshoot tech
• Manage breakouts
• Handle the recording
• Be a breakout captain
• Screenshare
• Play a skilled accessibly role (like captioner)
• Present: a proposal, an update

What other roles could you imagine for the groups you lead?