1. Virtual Virginia EDC Online Professional Development for Online Instructors Presented by: Cathy Cheely Director of Virtual Virginia EDC Online Professional Development for Online Instructors Presented by: Cathy Cheely Director of Virtual Virginia

2. Goal and Challenges Challenges include: Scarcity of highly qualified experienced instructors Few pre-service programs for potential teachers Little or no training in traditional academic training programs Lack of knowledge of online pedagogy Lack of experience in online work environment Full time and adjunct faculty with different needs Understanding of Virtual Virginia’s mission and standards Best practices are evolving as new research influences the direction of online education Others…. Virtual Virginia The goal is to develop and provide a quality online professional development program for beginning and experienced faculty and staff.

3. Solutions Professional development program based on Standards for Online Professional Development from SREB http://www.sreb.org/programs/edtech/pubs/PDF/04T04-Standards_Online_Prof_Dev.pdf http://www.sreb.org/programs/edtech/pubs/PDF/04T04-Standards_Online_Prof_Dev.pdf and Standards for Quality Online Teaching http://www.sreb.org/programs/EdTech/pubs/PDF/StandardsQualityOnlineTeaching.asp http://www.sreb.org/programs/EdTech/pubs/PDF/StandardsQualityOnlineTeaching.asp All efforts lead to the development of a strong and inclusive learning community Virtual Virginia

4. The W’s What: Professional Development for Virtual Virginia Who: Everyone! Everyone participates in professional development activities including the Virtual Virginia administrators, support staff and faculty Training is also provided for those in the schools who work with the program including the building level counselors and mentors Online modules and handbooks as well as f2f sessions upon request. Where: Virtual and F2F Virtual Virginia

5. The W’s Virtual Virginia When: Professional development begins with the interview and is a continuous process What: A varied menu of professional development activities that are timely, need based and related to the Virtual Virginia mission of serving students in the Commonwealth. Data driven (based on student and school survey results and student achievement) Research based (does it work and is it making a difference in improved performance?) Collaborative – promotes sharing and working together to achieve goals of Virtual Virginia

6. Virtual Virginia Professional Development Activities ActivityTypeWhen Optional/Mandatory Description Teacher WeekF2FAugustMandatory New teachers - 5 days Returning teachers - 3 days Facilitator Intro (7 weeks) VirtualVariesMandatory Initial training for all instructors Adv. Facilitator (3 weeks) VirtualVariesMandatory - FT Optional - PT Virtual learning community Mission ControlVirtualContinuousMandatory-Tricks Trade Optional - all other boards Discussion Boards/Learning community Elluminate Sessions VirtualBi-MonthlyOptional Variety of topics hosted by admin and team leaders - archived for those who can’t attend live Faculty MeetingsVirtualWeeklyMandatory Thursdays at 7 pm via Elluminate Archived for those who can’t attend live Department Meetings VirtualMonthlyMandatory Hosted by team leaders AP seminars / workshops F2F/VirtualVariesMandatory Week long seminars every 5 years Full day workshop every 2 years WebinarsVirtualVariesOptional Hosted by ETLO, SREB, NACOL Teacher Mentor Program F2F/VirtualContinuousMandatory for New Teachers Paired with experienced teachers/Meet regularly/Enrolled in courses

8. Mission Control

9. Content area - All reference documents, forms and how-to’s Tricks of the Trade – A place for colleagues to seek and to offer general instructional support as well as discuss best practices for online learning Faculty Bulletin Board - A place to share non-instructional news with your colleagues News Articles of Interest - This is a place to post news articles either in print or online that may be of interest to the online learning world Department Forums – Science, Social Studies, English/Humanities, World Languages Book Forum - Seven Habits discussions Virtual Virginia

10. Mission Control “I am in these two worlds every day...and I can't help comparing the two...but I love having these articles and being a part of such a group that spends this much time on reading and taking these issues seriously - something like this would not happen in a f2f school, I think. At least not like this. I do not mean to diss f2f organizations by saying this. But it feels pretty revolutionary! Vive la revolution!” (Adjunct French instructor who also teaches in traditional school) Virtual Virginia

11. Professional Development Announcement

12. Online Professional Development Agenda

13. Online Professional Development Session

14. Comments and Questions Virtual Virginia Virtual Virginia - www.virtualvirginia.orgwww.virtualvirginia.org Cathy Cheely – cathy.cheely@virtualvirginia.orgcathy.cheely@virtualvirginia.org