Going beyond…
Traditional facilitator guides are a long document that describes what EXACTLY a facilitator needs to do in order to facilitate a course. Or teach it. Whatever you prefer. It says things like, Begin with showing x slide, say x thing, ask question blah blah blah, expected answers are blah, blah, blah.
They are immensely useful not only to the facilitator, but also to the person building them. They help define what instruction may look like, how long it will take, and what the flow will be. Do we teach this before or after that?
Should we teach from it? No. Should we know it very well? Yes.
Current teaching standards, should elevate the facilitator guide to do more than just teach x by doing y. It needs to incorporate proactive ideas on how to connect students with ideas, how to create interaction within the class, provide context (both to the learner and to the teacher) and ensure that the connections between what is known and what needs to be learned can be made easily. Finally, they should include a list of additional resources that the teacher can use to further enhance student learning, answer questions they may have, and to provide more context as needed.
Looking for some examples for facilitator guides? Here a few good ones to get you started. Use them as templates, and add on to them. Make them your own.