Archives: Online courses

On Monday, November 15, LEARN NC and North Carolina e-Learning for Educators will begin using Moodle version 1.9. To facilitate the transition, the Moodle server will be down on November 13 and 14. Students and instructors should plan accordingly.

In addition to a number of security updates and visual enhancements, the Moodle 1.9 upgrade will bring added functionality to the course email system, the course Wiki plug-in, and the grade book. These new enhancements have better up-front instructions, information display, and a much more intuitive and streamlined interface.

If you experience any problems with the new version of Moodle, please contact the Help Desk by email, or call 919-962-HELP (4357).

Get a free copy of the Spring 2011 Online Professional Development Catalog from North Carolina e-Learning for Educators. Simply fill out this form and specify the number of copies you need.

LEARN NC 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. A full list of courses is available on our online courses page.

LEARN NC is pleased to offer a free public beta version of our newest online course, North Carolina Teacher Standards and Evaluation Process, which will begin on September 29.

North Carolina’s new teacher standards and evaluation process open the door for a host of conversations about how teaching and learning happen in our classrooms, our schools, and our profession. In this course, we’ll examine the standards and the evaluation model.

The beta version will run for three weeks and be worth 1.0 CEU. Future offerings of the course will last for five weeks, with the opportunity to earn 3.0 CEUs at a cost of $225.

For more information or to register, please see the course description page.

Start your year by sharpening your skills and earning renewal credit with LEARN NC. On September 22, LEARN NC will launch 11 online professional development courses. These courses cover a variety of content areas, including science, math, online teaching, literacy, ESL, social studies, English, and virtual field trips. Most courses cost $75 per CEU, and two courses cost $50 or less.

All LEARN NC online professional development courses are aligned to the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards, and provide the flexibility, convenience, and rigor you can’t get in face-to-face professional development.

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

About LEARN NC professional development

LEARN NC professional development uses a researched-based model for effective online training. In the last year, 1,800 educators completed professional development courses with LEARN NC, earning more  than 4,400 CEUs. We have trained 1,100 teachers to use the Moodle course management system to expand their local teaching capacity. Currently, 95 out of 115 school systems have at least one teacher trained to use Moodle.

Through LEARN NC’s Invest in Teachers Award, several schools and school systems across North Carolina received a combined $170,000 in matching-funds awards to be used for online professional development.

Winning schools and LEAs were chosen based on submitting detailed professional development plans, including how the new skills would be put to use, how the courses would help increase their capacity, as well as how many teachers would benefit from these classes.

We want to congratulate the following schools and districts for creating staff-development paths that bolster skills in technology integration, differentiated instruction, teaching in the virtual classroom, teaching in 1:1 computing environments, STEM education, information literacy, assessment, and internet safety:

• Union Pines High School (Moore County)
• Cherokee County Schools
• Union County Public Schools
• Union Elementary School (Sampson County)
• Perquimans County Schools
• Lexington Middle School (Lexington City Schools)
• Stanly County Schools
• Cloverleaf Elementary (Iredell Statesville)
• Granville County Schools
• Sampson County Schools
• Rockingham County Schools
• Pender County Schools
• Burke County Public Schools
• Lumberton High School (Robeson County)

If your school did not win an Invest in Teachers Award, please keep checking the LEARN NC website for an announcement about the next round of Invest in Teachers Awards.

LEARN NC, as part of North Carolina e-Learning for Educators, has many online professional development courses scheduled for fall 2010. All courses are aligned to the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards, and we feature courses geared to almost every subject and grade level.

You can view the full schedule of courses on our Open for Enrollment page. You may also download a PDF version of the catalog.

LEARN NC provides relevant, inclusive, research-based online professional development for teachers. According to end-of-course surveys, course participants overwhelmingly feel LEARN NC online courses are relevant to their jobs, and make them feel like they are part of a learning community. Learn how LEARN NC professional development can make a difference in your teaching.

Our hard-copy catalog of online professional development courses for fall 2010 will come out in early August. To get your hands on a free copy, simply send an email to Bill Ferris. Please include your name, address, and how many copies you need.

LEARN NC offers online courses for teachers in every discipline, from mathematics to teaching foreign languages to history. Our courses are based on a researched model for quality professional development. A full list of courses is available on our Online Courses page.

Send an email for your free copy.

If you thought archaeology was strictly the domain of history teachers and Indiana Jones, think again. LEARN NC’s online professional development course Archaeology and North Carolina’s First Peoples lets educators of all subjects and grade levels explore 12,000 years (!) of human history in North Carolina.

This course, which runs from July 12 through September 5, is worth 6 CEUs, and costs only $125. In addition to teachers, we encourage non-classroom educators who work with students or archaeological resources (i.e., park managers, camp counselors, etc.) to enroll as well.

For a full course description or to register, please see the course description.

LEARN NC will offer a pilot of a new professional development course, Planning Instruction with the National STEM Digital Library, beginning June 15 and running through July 26. This course was developed by Shodor as a way to show teachers the variety of useful classroom resources for STEM teachers available through the National STEM Digital Library.

This pilot offering is worth 3 CEUs, but only costs $25. A course description is below:

Course abstract

Explore the myriad resources available to you for free through the National STEM Digital Library (NSDL). You will learn to use this great collection to find and implement the tools most relevant to your classroom.

In individual and group activities, you will learn strategies for searching, self-reflection, and identifying resources most useful to you. You will review and discuss lessons learned with a group of like-minded professionals. In a final, culminating project, you will create a lesson plan for your class that takes advantage of the great tools you’ve found throughout the course.

Course goal

This course will prepare you to use the National STEM Digital Library (NSDL) and its connected resources in classroom teaching.

Prerequisites

None

Course objectives

Upon completion of the course, you will:

• Become a more adept searcher of resources in an information age
• Understand search methods within NSDL specifically
• Develop skills for online searching that can be replicated in other environments
• Be more aware of the variety of resources available to teachers
• Understand the different pathways and how to find resources within each

Standards Alignment

This course addresses the following North Carolina teacher standards:

• Standard III: Teachers know the content they teach
  • c. Teachers recognize the interconnectedness of content areas/disciplines.
• Standard IV: Teachers facilitate learning for their students
  • c. Teachers use a variety of instructional methods.
• Standard V: Teachers reflect on their practice
  • c. Teachers function effectively in a complex, dynamic environment.