Archives: Online courses

The spring schedule of online professional development courses is ready for enrollment! We are offering courses for our Carolina On-line Teacher (COLT) program as well as Moodle training, content-area courses, and courses designed to help teachers work with special populations. As always, each course was created using a researched model of effective professional development and the online format allows participants to work at a time and place most convenient to them. All courses are aligned to the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards.

Begin earning renewal credit with eLearning for Educators professional development courses! There are many courses to choose from and there is still time to enroll in courses starting in November. The following are selected examples of course offerings:

Accessibility, Usability and Visual Design – Carolina Online Teacher Program

This course will introduce you to basic web design, accessibility, and usability principles. By applying these simple principles, you’ll make your online course easier for students to navigate and access.

Collaboration and Teaching in a Virtual World – Carolina Online Teacher Program

This course is designed for educators who want to familiarize themselves with multi-user virtual environments, or MUVE’s. In this course we’ll explore one such “world” known as Second Life. The focus of this course will be the use of virtual worlds as a tool to enhance collaboration and their potential as an educational tool. Participants in this course will explore some of the innovative ways Second Life is being used in education while learning the basics of life in a virtual world.

Facilitating Online Collaboration — Carolina Online Teacher Program

This course examines online communication, guidelines for creating discussion questions, techniques for promoting critical thinking, and group interaction and collaboration.

Reading First: Supporting Early Reading Instruction with Technology

Participants in this workshop will discover the many ways in which new technologies can support classroom reading instruction in kindergarten through third grade. As they examine existing research on literacy technologies, participants will also review or familiarize themselves with the five areas of instruction discussed in the National Reading Panel’s 2000 report on early reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.

Start your year by sharpening your skills and earning renewal credit with eLearning for Educators professional development courses! There are many courses to choose from and there is still time to enroll in courses starting in late September and early October. The following are selected examples of course offerings:

Teaching Online Courses

Have you ever thought about taking your teaching into a new realm — the online classroom? This course prepares educators interested in teaching online courses for the virtual classroom. It is also a great overview for administrators interested in implementing online courses into their K-12 or professional development offerings.

American Indians in North Carolina

In this course you’ll explore American Indian history in North Carolina from the earliest evidence of human habitation in the state through first contact with Europeans, the Trail of Tears, the Great Depression, the Civil Rights Movement, and into the present day.

Assessment and Evaluation in Your Online Course

In this course you will take a close look at assessment options, think about how assessment reflects teaching practices, and devise authentic assessment tools. Through discussions and peer reviews, you and your peers will focus on creating quality online assessment activities and assessment tools.

To learn more or to register, please click on one of the course titles above, or visit our Online Courses page.

We’ve just listed over fifty online professional development courses for fall 2011. The fall offerings from North Carolina e-Learning for Educators include courses for our Carolina On-line Teacher (COLT) program as well as Moodle training, content-area courses, and courses designed to help teachers work with special populations. As always, each course was created using a researched model of effective professional development and the online format allows participants to work at a time and place most convenient to them.

About North Carolina E-Learning for Educators

North Carolina’s leaders in online professional development have collaborated on a series of courses that will bolster content knowledge and classroom technology integration at an affordable cost, with the convenience and flexibility only possible online.

North Carolina e-Learning for Educators is a partnership between the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, UNC-TV, LEARN NC, The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University College of Education, and the North Carolina Virtual Public School. This program is based upon work supported by grant funding from the U.S. Department of Education.

For a full list of available courses, please visit our online courses page.

Dear educators,

“Do more with less.” That’s the mantra we educators hear over and over, yet repetition doesn’t magically make it possible. In every school I visit, I meet teachers who are working themselves to exhaustion to serve their kids, and they’re doing a great job. But faced with new constraints, these resourceful educators will do what they’ve always done — adapt, evolve, change the way classrooms and schools work to make sure every child in North Carolina gets a great education. Some teachers are incredibly bold and inventive on their own. Others, however, need training to incorporate change and innovation. So how do we ensure that every teacher has the opportunities and support they need to continue to grow as professionals?

Staff development isn’t free, and it’s often the first thing to go when budgets shrink and belts tighten. That’s why LEARN NC and North Carolina e-Learning for Educators are taking action to help schools deliver professional development at a lower cost than ever before.  We are excited to announce the 2011-2012 Invest in Teachers Award. Through an Invest in Teachers Award, schools and LEAs can win matching-funds awards ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 to give their teachers the training they need to best serve their students.

To date, we’ve awarded nearly $300,000 in matching funds for online professional development to rural and urban school districts across North Carolina– making more affordable a program that already costs less than 1/2 of what schools typically pay for professional development.  The Invest in Teachers application process requires schools to first perform a needs assessment, then put together a comprehensive professional development plan that addresses their biggest needs. This sort of thoughtful planning is essential to effective professional development, and can only benefit educators and students alike. The growing numbers of teachers taking online professional development courses tell us they’re tired of cookie-cutter, three-hour, sit-and-get seminars with no follow-up. The Invest in Teachers Award encourages and assists schools as they customize their PD paths to address their need areas.

I encourage you to read more about the Invest in Teachers Award, and to submit an application by April 11. If you have questions, please feel free to contact Bill Ferris, our Invest in Teachers coordinator. As we ask more and more from our teachers, let’s give them the training and support they need to transform, to adapt, to evolve, and to make North Carolina schools great.

Sincerely,
Ross White
LEARN NC Associate Director

North Carolina e-Learning for Educators has several new online professional development courses open for enrollment for Spring 2011. Each course was created using a researched model of effective professional development, and the online format allows participants to work at a time and place most convenient to them.

Creating and Using Meaningful Rubrics — February 9 – March  8

Many rubrics are mere checklists—they’re useful, but don’t leave much room for student growth. This course will help you use web tools, your own content knowledge, and a wealth of assessment information to create your own dynamic rubrics, as well as to analyze and critique existing ones.

Teaching Effectively with an Interactive Whiteboard — February 9 – March 22

Learn innovative strategies to maximize your interactive whiteboard’s capabilities, and integrate time-tested strategies into this technology. This course provides an overview of an interactive whiteboard’s potential for student engagement, as well as ample opportunity for teachers to research and develop strategies specific to their classroom needs.

Visual Learning Strategies — February 9 – March 22

Seventy to 90 percent of all brain inputs are visual, so it pays to develop instructional strategies that use strong visual inputs. In this six-week course designed for teachers of all grade levels, you’ll learn several concrete, technology-enhanced visual learning strategies.

Working With Students With Cognitive Disabilities — February 9 – March 22

Collaborate with other professionals to understand the nature of cognitive disabilities and how to design lessons to accommodate for these students. You’ll gain hands-on experience to include students with cognitive disabilities in any setting in which the student is placed.

Promoting Reading Comprehension Skills in the Middle School Classroom — February 9 – March 29

Researchers have found that teaching specific reading strategies leads to better reading comprehension. This workshop will help you prepare your students to become active and purposeful readers who think about their text before, during, and after reading.

Using Models to Understand Fractions — March 9 – April 19

Learn to use a variety of mathematical models like Cuisenaire rods and pattern blocks -– both virtual and “hands on” –- to teach fractions to your 3rd, 4th, or 5th graders. This course offers alternative ideas for fraction instruction and is premised on the belief that students can come to understand fractions in a number of different ways.

Teaching Writing in the Elementary Classroom — March 9 – April 19

All students have the capacity to be good writers, and writers learn to write by writing. Explore teaching students through mini-lessons, writing conferences, and how to use established criteria to evaluate writing. This course will take you through the entire instructional cycle, from writing prompt to revision.

Best Practices for Vocabulary Instruction in the Elementary Classroom — March 9 – April 19

Examine best practices for building the breadth and depth of vocabulary for both comprehension and written expression in grades 3 through 5.

Project-Based Learning in the 21st Century — March 9 – April 19

Students will be engaged in active discussion forums, share ideas, learn about available resources, discuss different perspectives of project-based learning, student achievement, interdisciplinary curriculum, and standards. As a final product participants will create a Project Based Learning assignment for their subject area.

The Connected Writer: Using Blogs and Collaborative Tools to Improve Student Writing — March 9 – April 12

Examine how core content learning goals can be addressed and enhanced using blogs, forums, and other web-based writing and discussion platforms, with a goal of enhancing student writing and web-based collaboration skills.

Geometric Measurement — April 6 – May 24

You’ll familiarize yourself with the van Hiele framework and how it can be used to understand the challenges of teaching particular geometric measurement tasks for students in the middles grades.

About North Carolina e-Learning for Educators

North Carolina’s leaders in online professional development have collaborated on a series of courses that will bolster content knowledge and classroom technology integration at an affordable cost, with the convenience and flexibility only possible online.

North Carolina e-Learning for Educators is a partnership between the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, UNC-TV, LEARN NC, The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University College of Education, and the North Carolina Virtual Public School. This program is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Education under Grant No. U286A050018.

For a full list of available courses, please visit our online courses page.

The North Carolina e-Learning for Educators Spring 2011 Online Professional Development Catalog is now available for free as a downloadable PDF.

North Carolina e-Learning for Educators offers online courses for teachers in every discipline, from mathematics to foreign language instruction to history. Our courses are based on a researched model for quality professional development. As always, a full list of courses is available on our online courses page.

LEARN NC has rescheduled the Moodle upgrade to Saturday, December 4 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. In addition, Moodle will be unavailable between 11:30PM and Midnight on Tuesday, November 30 and Thursday, December 2.

In addition to a number of security updates and visual enhancements, the LEARN NC Moodle 1.9 upgrade will bring added functionality to the following:

1. Course Email system — The course email system will functions very closely to the current version, with a much more intuitive and streamlined interface.
2. Course Wiki plug-in — We have changed our old Wiki plug-in to a superior one. While the functionality closely resembles the wiki you’re used to, the new wiki has much better up-front instructions, addressing a major complaint of our current wiki.
3. Course Gradebook — The new gradebook has better functionality than the old version, and presents information in a more logical way.

Videos

Videos reviewing both the new gradebook and wiki are available here:

• Creating and editing a wiki in Moodle 1.9
• Using the gradebook in Moodle 1.9

Helpdesk support

The Helpdesk will be available for further questions:
Email: helpdesk@learnnc.org
Phone: 919-962-HELP (4357)
AOL Instant Messenger: LEARN NC Help

Looking to get the most out of your interactive whiteboard? “Teaching Effectively with an Interactive Whiteboard,” a new online course from North Carolina e-Learning for Educators, will help you learn innovative strategies to maximize your board’s capabilities, and integrate time-tested strategies into this technology.

This course provides an overview of an interactive whiteboard’s potential for student engagement, as well as ample opportunity for teachers to research and develop strategies specific to their classroom needs.

The inaugural offering for this online course runs from January 12 through February 15, 2011. Tuition is $225, and the course is worth 3.0 CEUs. Register or find more information here.

Four attendees of the LEARN NC 2010 Fall Interactive Conference won free spots in online professional development courses from North Carolina e-Learning for Educators. James East, Penny Modlin, Preston Bowers, and Rochelle Guilford each receive free tuition to an online course of their choice.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s conference on October 14. We will post video archives of the afternoon sessions soon. A conference agenda and downloadable handouts from individual sessions are available here.

About North Carolina e-Learning for Educators

North Carolina e-Learning for Educators is a partnership between the North Carolina Department of Instruction, UNC-TV, LEARN NC, The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University College of Education, and the North Carolina Virtual Public School. This program is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Education under Grant No. U286A050018.