Optional Facebook Course Community Groups
Most live courses have an exclusive, private Facebook Course Community Group where you can interact with other members of the course anytime and share in the learning experience together. Your participation in the online community is entirely optional; however, many participants find that connecting and dialoguing with fellow classmates in between sessions allows for a richer course experience.
Note: Summits and On-demand courses do not have Facebook Community Groups.
Unsure About Participating in the Facebook Community Group?
We certainly understand the variety of concerns some people may have about using social media, such as Facebook.
Naturally, we thought long and hard before deciding to use Facebook Groups, and did so initially because of an overwhelming number of requests from our participants. We realize that there is, perhaps, no single community platform that works for everyone, and we are aware that some of our participants are disappointed in our choice to use Facebook. Please know that we take your feedback to heart!
We are happy to have found that by using Facebook for our community groups, more people than ever have decided to actively participate in their course groups in beautiful and meaningful ways.
Rest assured, we are actively assessing other options for our online community groups. We will continue to use Facebook until we identify an appropriate alternative.
In the mean time, here are some suggestions to consider:
Breakout Groups
If your course includes small Breakout Group time during the live sessions, we encourage you to participate! These groups offer a wonderful opportunity to cultivate a sense of community. You can share your contact information (email, phone) in the group if you'd like to continue connecting outside of class time.
Anonymous Facebook Profile
If privacy and anonymity are your chief concerns, although against Facebook's policy, some individuals have elected to open a free Facebook account for themselves using an alteration of their name.
Please read the Facebook Support article What names are allowed on Facebook? for more information.
If you use a different name on Facebook than the one you registered for your course with, you'll need to let us know so that we can add you to the group.
Profile Photo Options
Note that you do not have to upload a photograph of yourself in order to have a Facebook account. In fact, you don't have to upload a photo at all, or you can upload a picture of your favorite animal or flower, for example.
Group Privacy Settings
Only members of the group can see posts. Facebook has two levels of privacy settings for groups:
- PUBLIC: Anyone can join or be added to the group. We do not use this setting.
- PRIVATE: Only people added to the group will be able to see information about the group and members. This is the setting we use for our Course Community Groups.
Your posts will show up in your personal news feed, but they are ONLY visible to other group members. For more information on Facebook’s privacy settings click here.
Optional Trial Run
Perhaps you'd like to consider a trial run? You could open an account just to use for the duration of the course and see if you enjoy participating in the Facebook group. You don't have to add any "friends", and you can delete your account after the course ends or at any time.
If you decide to give it a try, visit the article, Create a Facebook Account.
Once you've created your account, please go to the Community Group tab on your Course Homepage and follow the instructions for joining the group. The Course Homepage can be found on the Premium Access Website, by signing in with the same email address used when registering for your program.
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