Search for: All records

Online professional development (PD) can support broader accessibility than traditional face-to- face PD. However online delivery presents challenges for characteristics of high-quality PD, such as collaborative knowledge building and community development, that have proven positive outcomes in face-to- face modes. A few comparative studies have demonstrated equivalent outcomes when PD activities have been translated from a successful face-to-face implementation to an online format. This study investigates whether an online version of PD for high school biology teachers on using computer-supported complex systems curriculum and instruction can achieve the same high impact as the face-to-face version. We describe changes in design decisions to accommodate the online mode and measure impact on teachers’ perceptions of their experiences and student outcomes. The results show positive teacher perceptions in both PD formats and roughly equal student outcomes. However, teachers articulated other benefits to online activities that indicate opportunities for improved access to high-quality PD. 

Many researchers have identified the need for a more holistic understanding of the role of feedback in supporting learning in online environments. This study explores how our design, development, and implementation of an online feedback facilitation system influenced high school science teachers’ learning in an asynchronous teacher professional development online course. We then describe teachers’ and facilitators’, i.e., feedback providers’, perceptions of the effectiveness of the system’s features for supporting participants’ learning and engagement. Our work also responds to recent calls for developing a more nuanced understanding of how the complexity of feedback influences learning and the need for more qualitative research on online facilitators’ and learners’ experiences working with new technologies. Results demonstrated that, despite the difficulty of analyzing the complex variables influencing learners’ interactions and perceptions of the feedback system, designing adaptive feedback systems that draw on the principles of design- based implementation research (DBIR) offer promise for enhancing the systems’ contributions to teacher learning.