COLT Program: Practicum in Online Teaching open for enrollment

The capstone course for the Carolina Online Teacher program — the Practicum in Online Teaching — is now open for enrollment. Eligible participants can begin their practicum in the Spring semester of 2010.

The practicum is designed to be a guided first step into the virtual classroom, with help from expert online instructors. LEARN NC will be there to support you, reinforcing the best practices you learned throughout the COLT program, and addressing your questions and concerns.

Mentoring

Based on the course you teach, LEARN NC will find you a mentor from the COLT faculty. Online mentoring will consist of structured conversations via phone and email. Your mentor will also spend time in the course itself to offer advice where appropriate.

Requirements

• You may teach or adapt a shared course from the LEARN NC catalog, or you can create your own course.
• Your course must run a minimum of five weeks, with a maximum length of one semester.
• The course must be fully online. While we recognize the educational value of hybrid courses (courses where the class meets both online and offline), they are outside the focus of the COLT program.
• Though LEARN NC uses Moodle as its online learning management system, you are not required to conduct your practicum experience on Moodle. We encourage you to use whatever learning management system (LMS) is favored by your school or LEA.

Admission

• Admission is on a rolling basis.
• You must notify LEARN NC 30 days before your proposed start date.
• If you are creating your own course, it must be completed thirty days prior to scheduling your practicum.

For full details, please visit the practicum course description. If you have further questions about the practicum, please contact Bill Ferris.