By Joellen Killion

Journal of Staff Development, Winter 2002 (Vol. 23, No. 1)

Copyright, National Staff Development Council, 2002. All rights reserved.

Excerpted from E-learning for Educators: Implementing the Standards for Staff Development, published by NSDC, 2001.

Advances in technology have changed virtually every aspect of our lives and now may also influence how educators learn. Teachers and principals have opportunities, via e-learning, to participate in multiple professional and personal learning experiences. Teachers can exchange ideas with leading experts in their content areas, visit classrooms of exemplary teachers, receive coaching from mentors via web conferencing, and access online virtual libraries full of instructional resources and research. Teacher and principal certification and advanced certificate programs are available online nationally and at state universities. Most institutes of higher education offer some online courses, and many now offer bachelor’s, master’s, and other specialist’s degree programs online.

NSDC’s Standards for Staff Development, Revised Edition is the foundation upon which to make decisions about technology-mediated staff development. Because staff development available through electronic resources serves the same function as face-to-face staff development, the context necessary to support adult learning, the processes by which they learn, and the content they need to increase student achievement are the same.

E-learning has the potential to expand and enrich learning opportunities for educators employing alternative learning processes not available in the face-to-face arena. However, in order to be as effective as face-to-face staff development in deepening understanding and improving performance of both educators and their students, e-learning for educators will need to meet the same high standards as those for face-to-face professional learning.

Making sound decisions about which e-learning to choose is difficult. Before investing in or implementing e-learning products or related services, consider the following:

Decisions about where to invest limited fiscal and human resources and time often depend on evidence about the link between staff development and student learning. This same accountability faces those involved in e-learning. It is important that designers and providers evaluate their products and make those results available. It is imperative that measures of the effectiveness of e-learning for educators reach beyond the number of participants, completion rates, or preference for e-learning over face-to-face staff development to application of learning and results for students.

To further refine the quality of e-learning, designers and providers should use NSDC’s standards to guide their work. Those implementing e-learning should ensure that it is integrated into a comprehensive staff development plan at the district and school level. A comprehensive plan contains a vision for professional develop-

ment, is based on data about student achievement, offers multiple formats for learning to accommodate adults’ learning preferences, and is subjected to rigorous evaluation and ongoing improvement. Professional learning that builds on the best that both face-to-face and e-learning have to offer is more likely to produce results for students and their teachers.

Not all that is online is of the same quality. Technology should enhance and support the content, not limit it. Decision makers will want to be certain that programs and products under consideration offer substantial content related to their identified professional learning needs for educators and have the flexibility for adjusting content to meet the unique needs of their schools, districts, and individual educators. It is important that the majority of the program content aligns with the content standards specified within the school or district curriculum. Deepening teachers’ content knowledge and their content-specific pedagogy are important in improving student achievement (Killion, 1999). Programs that align closely with the approved curriculum and with the appropriate instructional strategies designed to assist students in reaching high standards are likely to improve teaching and learning.

Flexibility in format that allows for multiple entry points into and out of the program increases learners’ sense of control over their own learning. If the program supports customizable content, learners can easily tailor their own learning to align with their personal and professional learning goals, their schools’ goals, and the districts’ goals. Content flexibility allows learners to determine areas in which they want to spend additional time, seek alternative resources, and choose to deepen their own learning in areas of interest or need. This ability to tailor learning processes and content to the needs of adult learners allows for "just-in-time" learning for educators.

Technology makes it possible to extend the opportunity for learning beyond scheduled time. Participants can interact with learning 24/7 and revisit particular learning experiences multiple times for their own benefit. The NSDC recommends that 25% of educators’ work time be devoted to learning and collaborating with others. However, districts and schools that develop or buy online staff development programs for educators to use on their own time will not realize the full potential of staff development to improve schools. Educators, unlike most other professionals, already are expected to commit significant personal time for preparation, professional learning, and service on various leadership teams that contribute to the school’s management and improvement. Extending learning into educators’ personal time increases the likelihood that learning will be isolated from the needs of the whole learning community, focus on individual rather than collaborative needs, and fail to contribute to the improvement of the whole community.

Because the purpose of staff development, either online or off, is to improve student achievement, then time for learning, revising practice, and implementing new knowledge and skill is essential within the educators’ workday. Because technology makes it possible for educators to access learning for brief periods of time, they will have increased flexibility during their workday to use time more productively. However, larger blocks of time are also necessary for interacting with e-learning resources and colleagues, constructing understanding, applying new knowledge, and assessing the impact of their reforms. Regular time to learn — within educators’ workday — is necessary to encourage and support ongoing learning and development.

E-learning requires self-directed, motivated, and independent learners with some competence and comfort in computer literacy and navigation. To increase success with e-learning, schools and districts might consider some options for increasing learners’ comfort and skills with learning online. A number of programs provide either face-to-face or electronic orientation sessions to familiarize learners with the program’s platform and navigational tools. Others support e-learners with technical support and on-site or online assistance. Because the dropout rate for online learning is higher than in face-to-face learning situations, it is critical to participants to be comfortable and engaged in the learning. It may even be necessary to develop re-entry processes and management systems for e-learners who drop out and want to rejoin the program at a later date. E-learners who have a supportive learning community will be motivated and committed to learning.

In some schools and districts, educators with unique roles rarely have opportunities for expanding their job-specific or content-specific knowledge and skills. This challenge is heightened in small and rural districts where there may be only one high school science teacher in the entire district. E-learning provides opportunities to meet these unique needs by connecting these educators with others throughout the world in electronic networks, courses, online seminars, or other forms of electronic learning. In addition, e-learning makes it possible to provide "just-in-time" learning.

Ensuring transfer of knowledge or skills into the classroom or school requires follow-up support. When long-term support either electronically or face-to-face, access to experts, and opportunities to receive feedback, coaching, and assistance in applying new strategies or knowledge are integrated and applied on a regular basis, learners are more successful in using new learning effectively (NSDC, 2001).

Schools and districts have struggled to find the best ways of ensuring long-term, consistent support to help educators use what they have learned. This problem may be exacerbated in an e-learning environment. Learners working independently without long-term support for implementing new practices may lack the assistance and even motivation to apply new practices.

Technology offers expanded ways of providing ongoing support. Discussion groups, ongoing seminars, online newsletters, study groups, learning groups, easy access to experts, chats, threaded discussions, streamed video, and listservs are just a few of the ways technology continues to link learners and help them implement new learning. Technology facilitates the ways educators can extend their own learning, seek help from others, solve problems associated with implementation, and receive feedback and support from both experts and colleagues. With access to support 24/7, educators have increased opportunities for follow-up. Designing e-learning that incorporates follow-up support will make the difference.

Skilled instructors and facilitators ensure that all e-learners have the access and support that they need to be successful in the e-learning environment. They bring new ideas and resources into the e-learning experience to help learners adapt the content and process to their local schools. They also provide both public and private encouragement, risk-taking, feedback, and support to connect e-learners to the e-learning community.

Facilitation of e-learning ensures that the learning community is created and maintained, that individual strengths are tapped for the benefit of the entire community, and that all members participate actively in the learning experiences. Face-to-face content or facilitation experts are not always successful in an e-learning environment. To be successful, e-learning instructors and facilitators use special skills to support e-learners. For those making decisions about e-learning, it is important to ask about the development and experience of the content experts and the program facilitators, and ensure that both have specialized training in facilitating e-learning.

Technology expands opportunities and eases the physical challenges of networking by linking educators anytime, anywhere with others in similar roles. These electronic learning teams provide educators a forum for discussing authentic issues, learning from each other’s experiences, sharing resources, and coaching or mentoring each other.

In some ways the technology should be as invisible in the learning process as possible to allow the content and the process of learning to remain in the forefront. When examining programs, products, and services for the appropriate use of technology, consumers will recognize if the content or the technology is in the forefront by considering what they focus on as they interact with the learning. Minimal attention to the technology and primary focus on the learning is a good indicator that the technology supports the learning.

Images that are clean and easy to understand facilitate learning. While the artistic preferences of the user and the developer may differ, it is important that the graphics used in e-learning facilitate learning rather than distract from it.

Technical support can be available in a variety of formats, online through searchable help programs, in chats, via e-mail, by telephone, or face-to-face. Access to support in using the technology is important to learners who encounter problems during their learning time. The more immediate the support, the more likely the learner will be to continue participation. Frequent problems can lead to increased dropouts among e-learners. Those considering e-learning will want to know how technical support is provided, who provides technical support and their qualifications

A leading cause of dropping out in e-learning is isolation among learners and a lack of direction and motivation. Increased interactivity among participants and the instructor through immediate feedback, frequent assessments, shared assignments, and small study teams, will create a cyber-community among learners. When examining programs, products, and services, consumers will want to know, among other things, how interactivity is structured, how often it is expected and it occurs, how easily various communication systems work, and if there is the option for private and public communication within the learning group.

It is important to consider how e-learning programs, products, and services work with various operating systems and platforms. To ensure that all learners within an organization have access to e-learning from home and their workplace, platform independence is essential. If programs are more efficient on one platform, inequity of learning opportunity can occur among educators.

Educators need a suitable learning environment that provides easy access to e-learning programs and services; accommodates individual and small group work comfortably with the technology; meets ergonomic standards; and integrates various technologies. A suitable learning environment improves educators’ motivation to access e-learning resources. Individual classrooms and offices equipped to accommodate brief learning episodes increase learners’ flexibility and efficiency. The school district is responsible for creating learning places that provide the essential resources to support learning.

New forms of staff development, made possible through technological advances, require altering the traditional way continuing education units (CEUs) are awarded. Districts, states, and other agencies traditionally calculated credits, salary advances, or other forms of compensation or recognition for staff development based on the number of hours a course meets, rather than on demonstrated knowledge and skills or gains in student learning. E-learning presents new challenges for calculating continuing education credits. Because the hypertext construction of most online courses allows learners to navigate through courses in any sequence and shorten or extend their learning, time is no longer a suitable factor on which to base decisions about awarding credit. Demonstrations of learning and student achievement, rather than number of hours invested, should be the primary criteria for awarding CEUs.

Educators’ professional learning is most effective when it is aligned with school and district student learning goals and educators’ performance expectations. Learning plans establish goals and indicators of success and map the learning activities that will lead to goal achievement. Online assessments offer diagnoses of learners’ strengths and areas of need and might offer suggestions about courses of study to address needs.

Individual learning plans can be electronically developed and stored for periodic review, revision, and assessment by the educator and his or her supervisor. Educators can document their learning in electronic portfolios and can meet periodically with a team of peers or a supervisor to review content, goals, learning activities, and progress. Demonstration of new practices and improvements in student learning, as documented with evidence, may someday become the backbone of performance assessment systems in schools and districts.

Those considering purchasing online products and services for staff development will want to thoroughly analyze the related costs of providing the infrastructure necessary to realize their full potential. Infrastructure includes wiring and electricity, hardware and software, technical support, ongoing maintenance, and equipment upgrades. Costs include both financial and human resource investments in e-learning. Greater access to information and increased opportunities for educator learning can both increase and reduce costs. Programs are not necessarily less expensive than traditional staff development; however, they may be more convenient and flexible. Costs for travel, substitutes, facilities, materials, and consultants may be reduced, but it is prudent to invest these savings to ensure the availability of the highest quality programs, high speed, stable connectivity, readily available technical support, ongoing job-embedded learning, collaboration, planning, and implementing new practices.

At this turning point in implementing new environments for learning through technology, standards for quality are even more crucial. Technology allows providers to offer the consumer a learning package that may be attractive rather than substantive. Yet, all the bells and whistles made possible with technology will not produce results for students or educators unless the technology supports high-quality learning for educators. Successful e-learning programs, products, and services meet rigorous standards, are integrated into a comprehensive staff development program, and are supported within a learning community by systemic structures necessary to encourage and sustain them. These structures include careful planning, supportive leadership, and data-driven decision making. The National Staff Development Council seeks to guarantee that real learning for educators and results for students become the trademark of this new era of staff development.

Killion, J. (1999). What works in the middle: Results-based staff development. Oxford, OH: National Staff Development Council.

National Staff Development Council. (2001). National Staff Development Council’s Standards for Staff Development, Revised. Oxford: OH: Author.

E-learning includes multiple uses of technology to facilitate learning. The uses range from the simple to more sophisticated.

• Videotape and audiotape are simpler forms of technology-mediated learning.

• Computer-based learning such as computer-aided instruction and tutorials represent different forms of e-learning.

• Internet-based learning such as online courses and web-based videoconferencing represent still other forms of e-learning.

A copy of the complete report may be downloaded at www.nsdc.org/standards_tech.html or is available in print through the NSDC Online Bookstore, www.nsdc.org/bookstore.htm, or by contacting the NSDC Business Office at (800) 727-7288. Member price, $12.50; nonmember price, $15.