Project ShareOnline Professional Development in

Georgetown ISD

TCEA Panel: Online Staff Development Planning and Implementation

February 7, 2013

Educational Technology Coordinator, Kim GarciaEducational Technology Specialist, Sandy Kendell

Why Project Share for Online PD?

• Reduced Expenses– Eliminated Moodle hosting fees– Reduced district’s summer PD budget by offering fewer

in-person PD sessions

• Aligned with State Initiatives– ESCs delivering PD through Project Share

• More Robust than Alternatives– Considered Eduphoria Workshop

Courses Offered

• Educational Technology’s Foray into Blended & Online PD– Digital Citizenship

• Training for Campus Technology Facilitators• A prerequisite for teachers wanting to creating their

own Moodle / Project Share online learning environment

– Blended during initial offerings, later fully online

Courses Offered

• Summer 2012 Elementary Online PD– Behavior Support Strategies– Best Practices for Effective Teachers– K-5 Technology Applications for the Classroom Teacher

• Summer 2012 Middle School Online PD– Advanced Academic Strategies– Facilitating Higher Level Thinking in the Classroom– The Value of Formative Assessments– Technology in the Middle School Classroom (Prezi)

Course CreatorsSummer 2012 Online PD

• District-level Elementary Curriculum Staff– Executive Director of Elementary Education– Elementary Language Arts / Dyslexia Coordinator– PreK / PPCD Coordinator

• MS Assistant Principals• MS Instructional Coaches / Lead Teachers• Bilingual / ESL Coordinator• Educational Technology Coordinator and

Specialist

Course CreatorsNo Experience Required

• This was Georgetown ISD’s first large-scale self-created online professional development

• All course creators, with the exception of the Educational Technology Coordinator and Specialist, had never created an online course before.

• Some had never taken an online course prior to this experience.

Course CreatorsHow Were They Trained?

• Completed the online Digital Citizenship course – 4 hours

• Educational Technology Coordinator and Specialist led training on – 12 hours– Best practices in online PD– Planning course content, engaging activities, and

assessment– Planning, filming, and editing videos– Creating course content in Project Share Epsilen– Effectively monitoring/facilitating online PD

Course ImplementationEnrollment & Credit

• Enrollment– Register for credit in Eduphoria Workshop– Enroll in and complete course in Project Share Epsilen

• Credit Hours– 2 hours per course– Creators had different ideas for delivering maximum

content in 2 hours• Delete content• Make content optional• List amount of time teachers should spend in each lesson

Course ImplementationAddressing Participants’ Needs

• Course Facilitation– Recommended that course creators monitor their courses

and interact with participants– Groups divided the 8 to 10 weeks their courses would

run, took turns facilitating the course– Most course creators were off contract and were

compensated for facilitating during summer

• Participant Questions and Issues– Q & A Forum facilitated by course creator– Procedural and technical questions addressed by

Curriculum secretaries and Educational Technology staff

Course ImplementationParticipant Accountability

• Required Completion of One or More Activities– Discussion forum post and responses– Quiz– Develop and upload a lesson plan– Hands-on activity

• Verification and Credit– Course creators verified activity completion– Curriculum secretaries awarded credit in Eduphoria– Non-completers given opportunity to finish coursework

Participant Feedback

• Participants required to complete survey in Eduphoria Workshop– 86% learned something new– 93% will use what they learned with students– 89% felt readings helped them learn– 90% felt videos helped them learn– 81% felt assignments helped them learn– 57% had never taken an online course before– 68% are interested in more online courses

Participant CommentsPositive

• Able to learn at my own pace on my schedule– Take time to read documents, look at and bookmark links

• Course content was condensed and precise– Instructors selected quality topics and resources– Best practice videos of GISD teachers and other districts

were excellent

• Enjoyed the forum post or blog reflection– Was very meaningful and allowed us to learn 21st century

learning techniques our students need to know– Appreciate instructor responding to each person’s blog

post

Participant CommentsNegative / Needs Improvement

• Prefer In-Person Training– Prefer getting a packet of printed course content– Offer opportunities in a computer lab, allowing both online

learning and face-to-face collaboration– Offer the option of a fully in-person training

• Assessment– Do not like writing/replying to blogs, posting to forums; prefer

discussing in person– Too many assignments

• Course took more than 2 hours to complete– Too much material– Online course took more time than attending in person

Future In-House Online PD

• No plans to repeat large-scale online PD creation at this time– Course creation and Video creation were time-consuming

• Working with ESC 13 to set up inter-district sharing of district-created Project Share courses

• Educational Technology will continue to create online PD courses– iPad Orientation– Teaching and Learning with iPad– Preparing for BYOD

Additional Online PD Tools

• Eduphoria Workshop– Business Office Budget Training– iPad Orientation Self-Assessment Checklist

• SchoolWires district website– Post training resources for iPad Orientation

Join Our Online Course

• K-5 Technology Applications for the Classroom Teacher–http://www.epsilen.com/crs/13194674