Slides from a presentation at SITE 2016. Full paper available in the conference proceedings.

1. TeacherProfessionalDevelopmentintheDigital
Age:
DesignConsiderationsforMOOCsforTeachers
Charles B. Hodges, Patrick Lowenthal, & Michael M. Grant
Georgia Southern Univ. Boise State Univ. Univ. of South Carolina

2. MOOCsdefined
For the purposes of this presentation:
“Greene,Oswald, and Pomerantz (2015) describe most current
MOOCs, “typically involve structured and sequenced teacher-
led activities (e.g. videos, readings, problem-sets) coupled
with online assessments and usually some venue for student
interaction such as a discussion forum” (p. 927)”

3. MOOCs(hype?)
● Lots of initial interest (due to saving $$?)
● Poor completion rates reported
● Skeptical university facutly members
● Now beginning to see more research on/about them
● Some (valid) claims that no worse than large-enrollment,
face-to-face classes on many campuses
● “Quality” ? (Lowenthal & Hodges, 2015)

4. TeacherProfessionalDevelopment
● A good fit for MOOCs?
● Online (synchronous and asynchronous) professional
development
○ e.g. webinars
● Active Twitter chats and other social media utilized by
teachers for professional learning
● 28% of MOOC participants in MIT MOOCs identified as
teachers or former teachers

5. TheLITonSuccessfulTeacherPD
As summarized by Hodges, Grant, and Polly (2013)
● Active Learning including Hands on Instruction
● Alignment with Specific Curricular Content and a Focus on
Pedagogy
● Collaborations
● On-site Support and Just-in-Time Learning
● Remunerations
● Sustained Learning Opportunities Over Time

6. ActiveLearningw/Hands-oninstruction
Provide teachers with opportunities to learn through
authentic assignments that can be used immediately, or
easily repurposed for use,in their classrooms.
Design MOOCS for teacher professional development with
activities that make this immediate use or repurposing,
easy.

7. AlignmentwithSpecificCurricularContentandaFocus
onPedagogy
● Many states have their own standards, but…
● Common Core
● Next Generation Science
● ISTE NETS
● others...

8. Collaborations
● Teachers like to learn from other teachers
● Design MOOCs for teachers to include collaboration
● Provide support for collaboration
● Be explicit about opportunities to grow professional
networks

9. On-siteSupportandJust-in-TimeLearning
MOOC designers should ensure that elements in their courses
are easily searchable, or allow for personal bookmarking or
annotation so that individual users can find the information
they need, when they need it -- think mobile devices.
Design for accessibility (better accessibility means better
usability)

10. Remunerations
Provide artifacts (open badges?) of completion or competence
that may become valuable in “the market” or will enable
remuneration at the local level

11. SustainedLearningOpportunitiesOverTime
Leave open so that they can be accessed, searched, and
communities or contacts may continue

12. Thankyou!
Comments?
Questions?
Charles Hodges @hodgesc
Patrick Lowenthal @plowenthal
Michael M. Grant @michaelmgrant
Proceedings file