The readings and activities were great, but to me the most valuable aspect of this course was the insight I gained from other professionals in education.
Thoy Leonard, Technology Integration Specialist, LA
The Facilitating and Implementing Online Professional Development program is designed for K-12 school districts, state departments of education, teacher preparation institutions, regional educational service providers, and other organizations that provide professional development for teachers and administrators. This program builds your organization’s capacity to offer high-quality, standards-based online workshops focused on specific K-12 subject areas and grade levels.
The four components of the program are described below.
This program includes Facilitating and Implementing Online Professional Development, a semester-long online training course which prepares teams of participants to be Online Professional Development Specialists. These online specialists learn to facilitate online workshops and to integrate online learning into ongoing professional development programs. The eight-session course includes online readings, web-based activities, facilitated online discussions and a final project, where participants complete a plan for delivering an online workshop for teachers and/or administrators. Because this course is delivered online, participants are able to experience the online classroom as learners, gaining valuable hands-on experience in the online environment. Graduate credit is available for participants in this course.
EdTech Leaders Online includes a catalog of over 60 high-quality online professional development workshops for K-12 teachers and administrators focused on specific subject areas and grade levels. Your trained Online Professional Development Specialists facilitate these workshops for teachers and/or administrators within your educational organization. The ETLO workshops are project-based, and each workshop contains four to six sessions which include web-based readings, resources, multimedia activities and online discussions. ETLO provides the web hosting and workshop delivery software. ETLO workshops can also be exported and delivered on your organization’s compatible course management system.
Throughout the program, ETLO staff provide consultation to help you successfully incorporate online workshops into your professional development program. Online workshops are most effective when combined with in-person workshops, hands-on trainings, coaching, study groups, and/or other professional development activities. ETLO helps you address issues such as recruiting participants, providing incentives and/or graduate credit, workshop scheduling and program management and evaluation.
While running workshops, your Online Professional Development Specialists participate in the ETLO Forum, where they share questions, strategies, challenges, and resources with other trained online specialists and ETLO staff. The Forum serves as a source of rapid answers to questions and provides a growing collection of online professional development resources, such as recruitment and evaluation materials.
Additional direct support and consultation are also provided by ETLO staff throughout the workshop delivery process.
