Online Professional Development

Virtual high schools are beginning to be a common topic in K-12 districts as educators seek ways to meet the needs of today's students and families. An essential element for virtual high school implementation is professional development for teachers who will be instructors in the online courses offered. The Poway Unified School District has implemented a professional development model for online teaching and learning as part of a strategic plan developed in 2008, addressing the needs of 21st century learners. Their successful model was developed in collaboration with a professor who brought expertise in effective strategies, pedagogy and standards recognized as essential for online learning. A professional development course, called Acquiring and Expanding Promising Practices for Virtual Education was designed to support secondary teachers as they designed online curriculum content and experiences for students in grades 7-12. Participants will learn how we developed and engaged teachers to learn how to organize appropriate instructional media and resources as they designed online activities, assignments, and effective assessment techniques appropriate for an online course. These teachers were involved in collaborative activities and participated in groups as they learned and practiced effective online strategies to support web-based teaching and learning. Some of the activities they developed were taken back to their classrooms for implementation and reflection on the learning outcomes. All course design was based on nationally recognized standards from the North American Coalition for Online Learning (NACOL) and the nine characteristics for e-Learning from the Concord Consortium model