Online Teaching and Professional Development
Maximizing Professional Learning through Educators' Perceptions of Utility and Self-Efficacy in Pedagogy-Focused Courses
Educators’ perceptions of the utility of information and beliefs about their ability to leverage what they’ve learned are important aspects of their experiences in professional learning (PL) courses, as they are associated with engagement and implementation of course content. A survey sent out to educational professionals who recently completed a pedagogy-focused PL course from Michigan Virtual revealed that just under half of respondents plan to implement what they’ve learned in their classrooms and strongly believe in their ability to be reflective practitioners and implement specific strategies in their teaching pedagogy.
Out of Order, Out of Reach: Navigating Assignment Sequences for STEM Success
Pacing, or the timing of students’ assignment submissions, has been shown to have an important relationship to course performance. Less is known about how the submission order or sequencing of assignment submissions relates to course performance. This study found that the order in which students submitted assignments in their online STEM courses is related to their final grades, with students who submitted all assignments in line with pacing guide recommendations outperforming peers who did not. Indeed, students’ final grades decreased as deviations from the pacing guide increased.
Evaluating Professional Learning Course Offerings and Educator Engagement
Professional learning (PL) for educators is essential for promoting connections, pedagogical growth, and fulfilling recertification requirements. Investigating educators’ engagement with PL courses is crucial for ensuring its effectiveness. This study showed that most educators were satisfied with their PL courses and found audio/visual course elements particularly engaging and helpful for learning.
Tailoring Learning for Teachers: The Power of Personalized Professional Development
Through the strategic implementation of personalized professional learning, Plymouth-Canton Community Schools (P-CCS) has successfully transformed its approach to educator professional development. Through a blend of in-house curriculum creation, external resources and partnerships, technology utilization, and opportunities for educator choice based on feedback as well as their unique needs and aspirations, they've cultivated a culture of enthusiastic engagement and reflective growth.
MVLRI Research in Review: K-12 Online Teacher Preparation and Professional Development
Despite growing enrollments at the K-12 level, by and large teacher preparation programs are not preparing teachers to practice online. Few programs offer content on online teaching and it remains highly variable for those that do.
Exploring Professional Discourse Using Data from Online Discussion Forums: Showcase of Three Methods
This report offers an overview of methods investigating educators’ professional discourse. The selected three methods are text-mining focused on content words, text-mining with function words, and social network analysis. Detailed illustration of procedures of and results from individual methods will help readers strengthen their resources of research methods with these current cutting-edge approaches as they relate to doing social research in general or action research for program improvement.
Teacher Evaluation and Effectiveness Report
This report details Michigan Virtual’s efforts to adopt the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching evaluation rubric for online teachers. Michigan Virtual Student Learning Services administration modified Danielson’s evaluation rubric to suit the online teaching context, and developed an observation resource for use with the rubric. Phase 1 implementation of the evaluations was successful overall; it succeeded in both bringing Michigan Virtual in compliance with Public Act 173 by adopting an evaluation system and providing valuable professional development and growth opportunities for teachers.
Engagement and Discourse of Educators through Online Professional Learning Communities
The current study details three online PLCs: the Early Literacy District Coaches Online Community, the Statewide Online Mentor Network, and the STEM Teacher Network. The study also attempts to unpack participants’ engagement, in particular their discourse in those social constructive spaces. Using text-mining technique as the primary analytic approach, the findings highlight the strong potential of online PLCs and, in particular, discussion forums as hubs for meeting isolated educators’ professional needs. Practical considerations for improved design and implementation and future research needs are also discussed.
The Role of Online Teaching in Michigan Teacher Preparation Programs
This report details how online K-12 teaching is represented in college level teacher preparation programs in Michigan through a case study methodology grounded in the TPACK framework. Teacher preparation program websites and syllabi were the primary data sources; overall online teaching specifically was not prevalent among required course topics.
Research and Design of a Mobile Application for K-12 Professional Learning
This report provides a brief literature review on the use of mobile devices for formal learning, as well as an overview of the design and development of Michigan Virtual’s own mobile application. The report concludes with an overview of planned research efforts as the application is implemented in K-12 school pilot settings.
Engaging Teachers in Professional Development through Online Book Studies
Extended professional development (PD) is the gold standard for educators; however, given school budgetary and time constraints, it is also the most difficult form of PD. Together with the Michigan Department of Education, Michigan Virtual sought an on-going PD solution that would engage teachers throughout a given time frame but also be low-cost and asynchronous so teachers could fully participate when it was most convenient for them. The solution was an online book study. The following report details the characteristics of the three online book studies, as well as the evolution from early pilot phases to full district roll-outs. It also details the successes and challenges from both Michigan Virtual and the district partner’s perspective.
Exploring Preparation and Support for K-12 Online Teachers
A recent nationwide study revealed that very few teacher education programs are preparing K-12 online teachers for success in the online learning environment (Archambault et al., 2016), which leaves virtual schools with the need to provide their own preparation and support for new online instructors. To paint a picture of K-12 online teacher preparation and support, this case study examined ways in which eight virtual K-12 teachers were prepared and supported for their roles. Findings revealed commonalities in the expectations for and challenges facing K-12 online teachers and the types of professional learning opportunities and support available to K-12 online teachers. This report offers recommendations to help virtual schools and K-12 districts strengthen professional learning and support for K-12 online teachers.
Examining Online Research in Higher Education: What Can We Replicate in K-12?
One of the best ways for practitioners and scholars to understand what is already known in a field is to undertake a review of the existing literature. The existing literature related to K-12 distance, online and blended learning is still developing. This report seeks to describe a series of studies that have been conducted with adult populations that may be of particular interest to researchers and practitioners in the K-12 distance, online, and blended environments.
iEducator 21st Century Digital Learning Corps: iED Effectiveness
The iED Effectiveness report, part three in a series, analyzes the effectiveness of the iEds in their first year and part of their second year of teaching online for the Michigan Virtual School. Of the 13 iEds, only two had previous experience teaching online (for one and two years, respectively). Two of the iEds reported some experience teaching in blended settings, and nine reported no previous experience teaching online. Further, the nine iEds with no previous online teaching experience almost unanimously stated that they never considered online teaching as a possible career option prior to hearing about MVS and the iEd program. This group of teachers were novice online teachers going into their first year of the iEd experience.
iEducator 21st Century Digital Learning Corps: iEd Blog Network Analysis
As discussed in iEducator 21st Century Digital Learning Corps: Program Design and Reflection (part one of the series), iEds were asked to contribute regularly to publicly available blogs (the focus of part two of this series). The purpose of the blogs was threefold, seeking to encourage reflection, interaction, and growth. Blogs were selected as the unit of analysis as they presented an archive of data to be analyzed and, through the comments sections, afforded communication and connection between iEds and administrators.
Examining Teacher Education Programs and Field Experiences in K-12 Online Learning Environments
Little has evolved when it comes to how field experiences, or the practical, hands-on component of learning to teach, are structured. A study conducted in 2010, looking at how teacher education programs offered field experiences in K-12 online learning environments, found that only seven programs nationally, or 1.3% of responding programs, offered such an experience. In comparison, this report found a small expansion that includes 15 programs across nine states, representing 4.1% of responding teacher education programs. Despite being limited, there appears to be slow, targeted growth. Although signs of progress are noted, significant work remains to move the field forward with respect to K-12 online teacher preparation.
iEducator: Program Design and Reflection
This report introduces and details the iEducator program and includes reflections from the administrative and instructional design teams involved in the development of the program, as well as reflections and feedback from the iEducators themselves.
Recruiting, Training, Supporting, and Evaluating Online Teachers: A Cross-case Analysis of Teaching Infrastructure Across Virtual Schools
The Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute conducted a study of the similarities and differences across Virtual School Leadership Alliance member programs with a focus on teacher recruitment, hiring, training, support, evaluation and retention.
Findings and Reflections from the K-12 Teaching in the 21st Century MOOC
Following the conclusion of a massive open online course (MOOC) in the Fall of 2013 by Michigan Virtual and researchers from Kent State University, evidence presented in a final report suggests that MOOCs can lead to positive outcomes, particularly as they relate to getting teachers to think more deeply about teaching and learning in the 21st century.
What Massive Open Online Courses Have to Offer K-12 Teachers & Students
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been on the forefront of current conversations about teaching and learning in the 21st century. The ability for participants at all levels to take free courses in hundreds of topics ranging from guitar to nuclear physics has created as many opportunities as it has challenges and questions. For the most part, the topics and the conversations have focused on professional development and post-secondary education; MOOCs may end up changing how we teach and learn at the graduate and undergraduate levels. However, MOOCs are also now being implemented in K–12 environments. There are several ways in which MOOCs in their current formats can be used by K–12 students and teachers. There are also several benefits from K–12 educators considering the definitions of MOOCs and the concepts they present. This paper presents a conversation about the potential value of MOOCs in K–12 teaching and learning.
Categories
- Ai (4)
- Blended Teaching & Learning (14)
- Effective Practices in Online Learning (22)
- Effectiveness Reports (13)
- Mentoring (7)
- Michigan (44)
- Motivation & Social Emotional Learning (6)
- Online Teaching and Professional Development (21)
- Program Evaluation / Quality / Policy (27)
- Research in Review (11)
- Special Populations (13)
- Student Centered Learning (10)
- Student Pacing (10)