Learning groups can enrich a self-paced course experience, creating opportunities for idea sharing, community building, and accountability as participants progress through course material together. This learning group facilitation guide provides a framework for organizing, structuring, and leading a group of learners through self-paced courses on any topic.

• Learning Group Facilitation Guide - DOCX, with planning worksheet and checklists, September 2026
• Learning Group Facilitation Guide - PDF, with planning worksheet and checklists, September 2026

Why learn together?

“By convening a group of learners who are interested in a similar topic, you’ve got the basis for an open, collaborative learning environment that has the potential to be the support system many learners need. Peer learning can create a rich learning environment in which everyone simultaneously teaches and learns, acts and observes, speaks and listens” (P2PU Learning Circles Facilitator Handbook, www.p2pu.org).

Learning groups are lightly facilitated study groups for people to learn together. They provide a collaborative environment that has the potential to increase motivation as the group sets attainable goals together and connects their learning to practical application. Learners in a group share ideas and insights, answer each other’s questions, and learn from new perspectives and solutions. They form bonds as a community and reflect together on progress, which boosts confidence.

Introduction to learning groups

For more detailed instruction on using the guide and running learning groups, please see our Facilitating Learning Groups course.

What is a learning group facilitator?

A learning group facilitator’s primary role is to convene and coordinate the group and to guide discussions. They are not teachers and are not expected to be subject matter experts with “correct” answers on the topics. A facilitator helps to cultivate an environment in which learning and sharing among participants leads to desired outcomes. The facilitator can participate in a group as a co-learner or guide a group at the administrative level of a training coordinator or supervisor.

Group discussion and activity guides for specific WebJunction courses

WebJunction has created discussion and activity guides for many of our self-paced courses. Many of our webinars also have learning guides that include discussion questions. All of these can be used to support facilitated learning groups. Courses with discussion guides include: 

• LiFT: Library Foundational Training – each individual course includes a downloadable activities and discussion guide designed to be used with a learning group.
• Supercharged Storytimes Facilitator Guide (pdf) and article, Learning Together the Supercharged Way
• The Digital Collections Stewardship course series includes the Digital Collections Stewardship Discussion Guide (pdf)  
• Each course in the Creating Pathways to Civil Legal Justice series includes a group activities guide and video 
• The Navigating Civil Legal Issues of Natural Disasters course series includes a group activities guide
• For Introduction to Crisis Communications for Libraries, Archives, and Museums, see Group Activities Guide (doc)
• For Crisis Communications Planning for Libraries, Archives, and Museums, see Group Activities Guide (doc)
  
• For From Burnout to Balance, see Group Activities Guide (doc)
  
• For De-escalation Strategies for Libraries, Archives, and Museum Staff, see Group Activities Guide (doc)

Use and Adapt the Guide

Anyone may use and adapt this guide for free under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licensing. Please credit WebJunction/OCLC and provide a link to the source; in addition,  adaptations should be shared under the same license agreement.