Online Professional Development
That Counts

Course Development & Goals

We intentionally plan and build our course offerings to solve real problems in education. We regularly update our existing catalog and develop new courses based on schools’ needs, trends in K–12 education, and continual feedback from educators like you.

Our course writers are content experts with extensive subject matter credentials and classroom experience. They work closely with our development team to build an experience that is relevant, highly practical, and aligned with industry standards. Courses are not just filled with innovative techniques, but also illustrate how to apply these tools in practice. With each course, you’ll develop tangible products such as lesson plans or assessments that you can use immediately in your classroom.

Authentic & Personalized

Every grade and subject area—and indeed, every individual teacher—has unique needs. That’s why we’ve designed our courses to put you in control, allowing you to actively engage in the learning process, set goals, and direct your learning outcomes. You’ll determine the specific approach to the coursework and assignments by making choices relevant to your personal life experiences, professional role, and school environment.

Courses also include authentic assessments that mirror the type of work you do in the classroom. With case studies, active reading exercises, and time for developing student-facing activities, our courses provide consistent opportunities for you to apply concepts in a manner that uniquely matters to you.

Why Online?

All courses are online and self-paced, meaning you can complete your work at home, on your planning period, over break—whenever and wherever works best for your schedule. You are not required to participate in any synchronous, real-time conversations or activities, giving you maximum flexibility.

Online courses include a variety of web-based resources in addition to traditional texts, allowing us to offer more dynamic sources of information in a timelier fashion.

Professional Learning Community

Teaching can often feel isolating, especially when you are in a rural setting, are teaching online, or are the only teacher in your grade or subject area. That’s why all of our learners receive lifetime access to our online professional learning community (PLC), which connects teachers from around the country with one another. This forum is devoted to helping teachers learn from one another, share resources and lesson plans, discuss ideas, and meet other experienced educators in a friendly, interactive environment.

You can read or post to existing discussion forum threads; ask questions or seek advice; share websites, files, images, and videos; and easily access an ever-growing database of relevant resources. Course instructors also highly recommend that you post portions of your assignments here to diversify the feedback and input you receive about your coursework.

Facilitation & Feedback

Our courses are facilitated by instructors who are subject matter experts in their fields. With proven track records of supporting teachers across content areas and grade levels, our instructors guide you through your course by answering questions, offering detailed feedback on assignments, and more. Instructors have a deep understanding of national standards such as the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards, and feedback is always constructive, research-based, and thorough.

Instructors are selected for their excellence in teaching as well as their commitment to providing meaningful professional development for K–12 professionals. They are seasoned classroom educators who are highly qualified and passionate about learning. In addition to their knowledge of the unique subject matter of a course, they must meet strict credential and in-classroom tenure requirements.

Course Quality & Outcomes

Our course design focuses on clearly aligning course objectives, assessments, supporting materials, and feedback. In other words, our goal is to make sure PD is something you will meaningfully use in your role—not just another box to check off.

Focus on Student Success

Fostering student success in both academics and social-emotional growth is a major focus of all our courses. Our courses are filled with strategies, techniques, and activities that are directly tied to improving student achievement in the classroom.

Many professional development courses address special student populations by tacking on a section at the end; however, we believe that knowledge of these populations is integral to all subject areas and grade levels. That’s why our courses include direct strategies for working with these exceptional students (special needs, English language learners, at-risk students, and gifted and talented students).

Dual Enrollment & Content Area Courses

For educators wishing to teach dual or concurrent enrollment courses, regional accreditors like the Higher Learning Commission require teachers to (a) earn 18 graduate-level credit hours in their content area and (b) have a master’s degree in any content area. In addition, many states and districts are now requiring teachers to earn graduate credit in their content area to maintain their licensure or advance their salary.

Our content area courses facilitate the process for you to teach dual or concurrent enrollment credit courses and meet your state or district’s requirements for content area credit.