Use e-Learning for Educators: Missouri to Meet Your Professional Development Goals
Use the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), aka "stimulus fund" and Title II. D Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) Formula and Competitive Funds to purchase:
- • Online PD courses in a variety of content areas and topics for teachers at any grade level (no travel time or costs; 8-week courses; grad credit available)
- Register for summer courses beginning April 16.
Courses begin June 3
- Register for summer courses beginning April 16.
- • Customized courses to teach cadres of district educators to create and facilitate online courses for students and teachers (grow your own online courses)
- Register for these courses by contacting Christie Terry, e-Learning for Educators Program Coordinator
573-884-4233 - elearning@missouri.edu
- Register for these courses by contacting Christie Terry, e-Learning for Educators Program Coordinator
- • Series of courses create professional learning communities to improve student performance (see the results)
- Register for these courses by contacting Christie Terry, e-Learning for Educators Program Coordinator
573-884-4233 - elearning@missouri.edu
- Please include the following additional informaion:
- 1- Content area(s) in which you are interested
- 2- Approximate number of participants anticipated
- 3- Desired start date
- Register for these courses by contacting Christie Terry, e-Learning for Educators Program Coordinator
Grow your own online courses
e-Learning can help your school or district create and deliver online courses for students and/or teachers.
Would your school or district like to have its own PD course for teachers about a specific topic? Would you like to create a customized online course for students? e-Learning for Educators can help you create your own online courses to meet special interests or needs.
How it works
A team of 4-5 educators (content area teachers, professional development specialist, curriculum coordinator, etc.) from your school or district participates in an eight-week e-Learning for Educators online course to learn how to develop online courses. Each team creates one course during their experience.
An experienced facilitator will lead your team through all the steps necessary to design and develop a high-quality online course for teachers or students. The online course development course takes about ten weeks to complete. No travel is required; however, many teams have found it useful to have a preliminary face-to-face meeting with their facilitator to begin the process.
Teams use Moodle (an open-source learning management system) both for participating in the learning experiences and for developing a new online course..
Once the course is completed, e-Learning for Educators can host your developed course for a small fee OR you can import it into your own Moodle site or to a contracted Moodle host. The course also can be developed for BlackBoard or other learning management systems.
Ater completing the course development process, teams can continue developing other courses.
Recommendation - When schools or districts create their own online courses, they should train several facilitators for their online courses, too. In the example below, five facilitators from the district will be trained to provide the course to students or teachers.
Districts may apply for up to five course development teams per year:
Costs
Note - Provision of laptops and productivity software is not required. These costs are noted so that districts using Title II.D funds – formula or competitive – have scenarios for consideration. Title II.D requires that 25% of the fund distribution include expenditures for professional development.
| ITEM | COST | UNITS | TOTAL |
| Laptop with productivity software for each team member | $2,000 | 5 | $10,000 |
| e-Learning course to develop online courses (for a team of up to 5 educators) | $7,500 | 1 | $7,500 |
| Stipends for educators on development team | $1,500 | 5 | $7,500 |
| Moodle hosting fee (to e-Learning, includes technical support) | $2,500 | 1 | $2,500 |
| Travel for participating educators (course developers) | $500 | 5 | $2,500 |
| Evaluation surveys (provided by e-Learning) | $1,000 | 1 | $1,000 |
| Laptop with productivity software for each facilitator | $2,000 | 5 | $10,000 |
| e-Learning online facilitator course | $500 | 5 | $2,500 |
| Stipends for participating educators (facilitators) | $1,500 | 5 | $7,500 |
| 5 Evaluation surveys (provided by e-Learning) | $1,000 | 1 | $1,000 |
| TOTALS | $42,000 | ||
| Equipment, hosting and evaluation | $24,500 | 58% | |
| Professional development (25% required by Title II.D) | $17,500 | 42% |
Create professional learning communities
e-Learning for Educators can help your school or district by creating cadres of teachers who are proficient in completing online professional development and sharing their experiences. Help teachers gain improved content knowledge and pedagogy skills in core subject areas. Help students demonstrate increased performance in key content areas.
How it Works
Teams of 4-5 teachers from a particular grade or content area complete a specially facilitated series of online professional development courses as part of a professional learning community. Up to four short (8-week) courses can be taken over a year (i.e, August 2009 through June 2010). Fifty percent of the coursework will focus on content knowledge and fifty percent will focus on pedagogy. Graduate credit will be available (participants may pay tuition from their stipends).
Participating teachers may receive laptops depending on the school or district plan for expending Title II.D formula or competitive funds.
Participating teachers work collaboratively to create lesson plans that are evaluated using eMINTS rubrics. Their students are assessed pre- and post-teacher participation in the online professional development experiences.
Costs
Note - Provision of laptops and productivity software is not required. These costs are noted so that districts using Title II.D funds – formula or competitive – have scenarios for consideration. Title II.D requires that 25% of the fund distribution include expenditures for professional development.
| ITEM | COST | UNITS | TOTAL |
| Laptop with productivity software for each team member | $2,000 | 5 | $10,000 |
| e-Learning courses (2 per semester for a total of 4 courses per participant) | $400 | 20 | $8,000 |
| Stipends for participating educators | $1,500 | 5 | $7,500 |
| Evaluation services for students and teachers (provided by e-Learning) | $5,000 | 1 | $5,000 |
| TOTALS | $30,500 | ||
| Equipment, hosting and evaluation | $10,500 | 35% | |
| Professional development (25% required by Title II.D) | $20,000 | 65% |