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Teaching in Online Schools: a Free and Effective Professional Development by Escribo

Wed, April 7, 2:45 to 4:15pm EDT (2:45 to 4:15pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

A recent survey indicated that 77% of the K-12 teachers in the U.S. participated in online professional development courses (PD), and 84% found such experiences beneficial (Parsons et al., 2019). There is evidence that online PD can be as effective as face-to-face PD (Binmohsen & Abrahams, 2020), but studies of online PD created to support teachers working in online education are still rare.

As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of scholar-practitioners created a course to support PreK-8 teachers to implement effective online education. The course is structured in five phases, designed according to Figure 1. This study evaluates such an evidence-based online PD course in a mixed-methods, quasi-experiment.

The sample was comprised of 283 educators, 138 were allocated to the control group, and 145 to the experimental group. Eighty-one percent were teachers, 15% were program directors, principals or pedagogic coordinators, and 4% were teacher assistants. Early childhood education professionals accounted for 52% of the sample. Primary education professionals accounted for 45% of the sample, while 3% of the participants were working in high schools. Regarding experience, 61% of the teachers had ten or more years of experience. Educators with less than five years of experience totaled 23% of the sample, and 16% had between 6 and 9 years of experience. While they were experienced, their work had focused on face-to-face instruction, as none had ever conducted online teaching activities.

The independent samples t-test revealed that the experimental and control groups were not different in terms of years of experience at baseline (t = 0.04, p = 0.96). The course completion rate was 51%, the third-highest among 217 other massive open online courses. The pretests and post-tests analysis indicates that the teachers who finished the course displayed improved technological skills compared to control teachers (d = 0.16). These teachers also increased their online education skills, 62% more than the control group (d = 0.44). These gains were statistically significant.

The qualitative strand revealed insights into what made the course effective:
A. The elements of the course that were most appreciated by the teachers were the concise and precise content, the videos with other teacher’s experiences, and the content about synchronous and asynchronous sessions.
B. When asked what they did not like, most participants said they liked everything. The second most cited item were the activities, followed by the quizzes.
C. Gamification features were not critical drivers of participant’s engagement.

Our Implications for Research and Practice section highlights:
A. That our data replicated previous research indicating that participants find online PD courses useful. Online PD can be effective at a lower cost than in-person PD.
B. The importance of focusing on relevant and practical learning objectives when designing and implementing online PD courses.
C. How to produce low-cost videos with teachers’ testimonials to drive participant self-efficacy and engagement.
D. How to use inexpensive SMS messages to increase motivation and course completion.

Group Authors

Americo N. Amorim, Monique Soares, Lidia Cerqueira, and Danilo Aguiar, Escribo Inovação para o Aprendizado
Lieny Jeon, Yolanda Abel, Johns Hopkins University
Alena Nobre, Universidade de Pernambuco
lieny.jeon@jhu.edu, yabel@jhu.edu, monique@escribo.com, lidia@escribo.com, danilo@escribo.com, alena.nobre@upe.br

Authors