Transform Your Online Professional Development to Work for You

Due to COVID-19, online learning for students is becoming the mainstream in education. On July 7, 2020, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) issued its comprehensive guideline for a safe return to on-campus instruction for the 2020-2021 school year. The TEA stated: “Despite what will be a challenging budget year… legislative leaders are committed to fully funding in-class and remote instruction for every child…parents will have the option to choose remote learning for their children, initially, or at any point, as the year progresses (TEA, 2020).” In addition to strains on the state budget, there is another key issue impeding online learning. Many teachers do not feel fully prepared for online learning since the traditional professional development (PD) training, unless otherwise noted, prepared teachers for face-to-face instruction, which was the expected mode of delivery (Koenig, 2020). Furthermore, teacher preparation programs and PD courses are facing the same dilemma: how to prepare teachers in an online context (Koenig, 2020)? (15-minute read)