by Laura Vitale
We are excited about our partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) to bring no-cost, high quality, online professional learning opportunities to educators across the state. This statewide initiative will build the capacity of educators to meet the dynamic needs of each learner regardless of space, place and time. Wisconsin Digital Learning Collaborative and the CESA Instructional Technology Services Committee (CITSC) are also assisting in the project.
The initiative seeks to:
- Help educators to design, support, and deliver challenging and engaging online, blended, and digitally-rich experiences
- Allow educators to access high quality, online professional learning that is on-demand and just-in-time
Educators can build the learning path that best meets their professional needs by picking from a variety of options. We are offering a statewide catalog of courses to support learner-centered instruction, online and blended teaching, and support for teacher licensure programs. In addition, DPI has created a resource page to assist districts and higher education licensing programs to support districts in any format of learning this school year.
The courses are all self-paced and online. Enrollment is rolling due to the self-paced nature of the courses, meaning educators can enroll and complete the course at a time that is convenient to them. Districts also have the option of creating their own cohort of participants. At present the following types of courses are available:
Micro-courses: These courses allow learning in small steps, and are designed to both teach and model competencies and skills related to operating high-quality online/blended programs. The micro-courses are asynchronous, self-paced, and are typically a combination of online coursework and practical application.
Self-paced courses: These are 30-hour courses that provide educators with the strategies needed to take learning into the digital environment. A facilitator monitors the discussion threads on a weekly basis.
This project is supported by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Program to serve all Wisconsin public, tribal, charter, and private schools serving students in grades 4K-12 and Institutes of Higher Education and licensing centers for pre-service educators. Additional courses and workshops will be added throughout the next 18 months.
For more information about the courses, including registration information, please visit https://i4pl.link/pd4wi.