The Teacher as the Learner: Professional Development for Online and Blended Learning

As a result of shifts to deepen learning practices and the increased access to technology, state education agencies and local school districts nationwide have created policies to support online and blended learning. The expansion of blended and online learning has occurred in K-12, higher education and adult education contexts. Proponents and opponents of blended and online learning argue their advantages and disadvantages, but regardless of the merits of their arguments, e-learning continues to grow.

Some educators erroneously believe that blended learning is merely traditional, face-to-face learning that incorporates digital resources.  Similarly, many educators mistakenly assume that online learning should mirror classroom learning.  These misconceptions do not allow teachers to leverage the benefits of technology for more effective, engaged learning. Since teachers will continue to be expected to develop technology-based approaches for instructional delivery and assessment, the prevalence of these misconceptions makes it essential to offer professional development for teachers to learn how to teach in virtual environments.

Many school districts have failed to offer quality professional development to help teachers use rich pedagogical strategies in blended and online learning contexts.  The White House recognized this gap in teacher training and launched the ConnectEd Initiative to support teacher learning. The 2015 NMC Horizon Report notes two avenues for addressing this issue: teachers enrolling in relevant coursework offered by institutions of higher education and teachers perusing free and paid online resources available on the internet.  Since the courses provided by higher education institutions often provide better support, community building, and active participation (and sometimes credentialing), I believe they are an excellent option for quality professional development.

One example of a higher education institution’s program that targets improving teachers’ effectiveness in online and blended learning environments is the Virtual Online Teaching (VOLT) Certificate program at the University of Pennsylvania.  The VOLT program is run completely online and is designed to help teachers consider the learning environment from a “design based perspective.”  This design approach uses collaborative and iterative development and analysis to build contextually relevant online and blended learning environments.  In addition to teachers, the VOLT program is intended for school administrators, program leaders and district professional development personnel who support online and blended learning.  The program uses an inquiry-driven approach through active, group learning that optimizes academic and practice exercises.  Upon successful completion of the program, educators who are certified teachers are eligible to receive an online teaching endorsement from the State of Pennsylvania.

The VOLT program is unique in that it is tool agnostic- unlike typical district professional development based on training around specific tools.  For example, if a new Learning Management System (LMS) is adopted by a district, professional development will likely be offered to teachers to familiarize them with the new tool.  Rather than focusing on how a particular tool can be used, the VOLT program emphasizes the learner, the learning experience, and the activities from a learning theories’ perspective.  Participants are first taught how to consider the learning experience they aim to construct, and then learn how to incorporate various technological tools. The VOLT program also introduces teachers to several open tools and open educational resources, grounded in the belief that with new technology tools continually coming to the market, teachers must be able to evaluate these new tools to determine whether their use will further their learning objectives.

Professional learning networks such as communities of practice have become a popular means of educator collaboration.  Participants in the VOLT program engage with an online community of practice to share information and build relationships with one another.  In addition, teachers explore current research in digital literacies and how principles of participation and praxis should inform pedagogy in technology.  As learners participate with global literacies across intersecting and global networks, exposure to digital literacies can inform teaching and learning in powerful ways.  

Moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach to professional development about technology, the VOLT program focuses on helping teachers create environments that are adaptive to learner needs. Since educational technologies are ever-changing, the VOLT program not only focuses on introducing teachers to current research, trends, and best practices in technology-based learning environments, but also teaches how to “keep with the times” and maintain an ongoing understanding of new research, trends, and best practices.   Teacher Alli Gubanich says that she joined the program to “find ways to invigorate and diversify my craft.  The practical activities and coursework were just that - practical!  I was able to immediately implement (the strategies) in my classroom, and I often did.”

Digital technologies and online tools have the potential to create powerful learning experiences for learners of all ages and abilities through providing interactive online lessons, immediate feedback, personalized learning paths, quality assessments, and individualized learning options.   Since professional development for teachers to learn and teach online is still evolving, more quality programs like VOLT are needed to fill the void. Hopefully VOLT is setting the standards for building innovative online programs for “teaching teachers to teach online.”