Do you take online professional development courses?

Submitted by Leah Peterson on Mon, 09/26/2016 - 15:05
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  • 6 Comments

Hi Everyone,

I'm curious to hear from teachers and administrators about their preferences for online professional development. I'm the project coordinator for World Education's online professional development courses - http://elearningpd.worlded.org/ hopefully you've heard of us! I'm also a student in an online masters degree program at Northeastern University. Between the two, I've become a strong advocate for online learning. If you're here in the Community, you've already passed one hurdle to being an online learner - getting online. So why do you, or don't you, take online PD classes? And if you do, what do you look for in a class?  There are plenty of studies that describe the pros and cons of the various formats, but in the end, that seems to matter less than finding something that meets your needs. Although I'm interested in the conversation, I also (clearly!) have an ulterior motive - I want to make sure that the courses we're offering through http://elearningpd.worlded.org/ are what people in the field are looking for. In case you aren't familiar with them, our courses are generally 6-8 weeks, facilitated, asynchronous, with weekly forum posts and assignments. We also have a few shorter free self-paced courses. Courses enrolling for fall include:

  • Mathematizing ESOL I 
  • Contextualized Instruction 
  • Foundations of Teaching Adult Numeracy 
  • Data: Helping Students Interpret Numeric Information 
  • Helping Students Stay: Exploring Program and Classroom Persistence Strategies
  • Integrating Career Awareness into the ABE and ESOL Classroom 

So, have you taken an online course for your own professional development? Would you do it again? Or if you haven't, what's held you back? 

Best,

Leah Peterson

 

Comments

Hi Leah, 

This is a great question. I prefer online courses because I can fit the work into my chaotic schedule. What I want from professional development is a clear connection to my work world. I want to apply what I am learning immediately. I want to have clear deadlines with defined expectations and I would prefer to have the ability to network iwth my peers. 

I'd love to hear what others look for in online PD.

Kathy 

Like Kathy, I want any PD that I participate in to be relvant to my practice. I've taken online PD and like the conveneince of it. I don't have to go anywhere, just sit with my computer and learn. I call it PD in my PJs. I also like deadlines. It's too easy to start a course and then get distracted by other work. Having activities that require working with other participants is nice, too. Keeps me from feeling isolated and lets me learn from others in the field.

Hi Leah,

I took my Master's course work online at Penn State's World Campus. I liked the fact that it was "portable". I was able to access my classes on vacation or if I traveled for my job. I had classes with people from all over the world, also. I liked having a schedule as well as a work group for team projects. It kept me logging onto my class, as I did not want to let the others down, or not do my fair share of the work. I only took one class a term, and got so involved that I felt like I suffered withdrawal when it was over. I have also taken some classes through the LINCS portal. When I took courses that were relevant to my position, I did well and completed. However, sometimes I just logged into a course and looked around to see if it was appropriate for staff to take. Doing that probably messed up your persistence rates, but it helped me to speak knowledgeably  about what was offered.

 

 

Hello,

I took f2f classes for my undergrad and then I took all my graduate classes online.  I am currently taking a certification course through Penn State which is completely online.  I also register for every free webinar I can because I love learning.  

I do not like nonsense work.  It has to be meaningful and something I can apply in my class immediately.  I enjoy visuals with lots of examples.  I like the option to ask questions.  A handout is helpful, so I can print it and follow along.  I want to learn strategies explained with scenarios and short stories.  It is good to know ahead of time what types of roles in education/administration the courses would benefit. Titles can be misleading.  I recently attended a webinar that did not apply to my type of classroom which was a disappointment.

I have not visited your website, but I will soon.

Rene

I have two comments, 

First, I also need to have an end in sight for the online PD. I typically start with a bang, interested and motivated, but as the course progresses, I struggle with maintaining my interest. In order to do that, I need an end in sight. Leah, do you have any ideas about an 'ideal' length of a class before you see participation begin to diminish? 

Then, I'd like to ask the EBPD group to chime in on how these comments translate to our students and how do we develop instruction that is portable, available at a distance, meaningful, with a clear time frame? What are some of your ideas?

Sincerely, 

Kathy 

@Kathy_Tracey

Thanks everyone for your comments! Kathy, from what I've seen in the World Education E-Learning courses, participants normally either drop out right away - sometimes they post in the first forum or two but mostly don't engage at all, or they complete the course. It's pretty rare for the facilitated courses at least for someone to go halfway then not finish. Most people stay on track with the deadlines, but a pretty high percentage need extensions at the end of the course (we generally offer up to 2 weeks for people to get in final work). Anything over 8 weeks is very difficult to fit into a schedule, as we try to be mindful of semester start and end times as much as possible, but I think that 6-8 weeks is a good frame as it allows participants to really dig in to the content and to connect with each other. These are the facilitated courses I'm talking about, self-paced/free courses are a whole different ballgame and people are far more likely just to poke around, get what they need and leave without actually completing. 

One thing that I've noticed as a student is that it's a lot more fun and rewarding than I expected it would be. Like Sue, I take one course a semester and although it's a lot of extra work, I'm always disappointed when a course ends and excited for the next one to start. 

Leah