Online Professional Development for Exploring Computer Science

Education Development Center, Waltham MA

Investigators

Abstract

The Education Development Center proposes a project to develop online professional development (PD) workshops that will prepare a larger and more diverse group of high school teachers to implement the successful Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum, thereby making ECS accessible to a larger and more diverse group of students. Currently ECS PD requires a week of face-to-face training in each of two consecutive summers, in addition, it requires four quarterly in-person ECS workshops during the academic year. Many teachers, particularly those in rural areas, are not able to attend those workshops. This project--ECS PD Online--will provide a much-needed alternative to these four quarterly in-person meetings, leveraging the power of the online environment to create rich learning experiences that are closely aligned with the ECS pedagogical approach and commitment to broadening participation in CS, while providing additional flexibility regarding when and how teachers take part in training. To ensure that ECS teachers across the nation have access to ongoing professional development during their first year of teaching ECS the project will (1) build and test three asynchronous online PD versions of the quarterly in-person workshops (a fourth having been built under previous funding); (2) develop and pilot additional online activities/resources focused on ECS technical content; (3) develop and test an ECS Online Facilitator training course and system; (4) conduct research in order to understand the promise of effectiveness of online PD for supporting ECS teacher learning; and (5) embed ECS PD Online into the portfolio of ongoing ECS professional development services available to teachers nationwide. The project work is grounded in research in the field of ECS learning, and effective curriculum development, as well as in essential design considerations for online professional development. Recognized experts in the field will provide the project team with frequent and ongoing feedback on research, products, and processes to ensure that the project's goals and objectives are achieved.