Online Professional Development (SmartPD)
The Loyola SmartPD focuses on classroom teachers extending their current expertise and acquiring new professional knowledge and skills to implement high-quality instruction and assessment in their classrooms. The vision of SmartPD includes blended school-based and online professional development strategies and engagement in a worldwide learning community to support teachers to apply what they learn in their classrooms.
Smart PD Model
- Online Component - When using the online component, teachers learn independently with a computer connected to the Internet to complete SmartPD modules. The online component uses a platform integrating professional development and social networking tools. Standards, best practices, and content resources are digitized and uploaded into a dynamic learning environment through a sophisticated content management system. This process allows teachers to engage in a highly interactive approach for learning Loyola SmartPD content on demand.
- Mentoring and Collaboration - Teachers combine their online learning with the support of a faculty coach to complete a Loyola SmartPD module. Moreover, teachers are supported by peers, teams of teachers, and provided access to professional learning communities, and experts, as needed, to complete the application of online content and skills in their classrooms.
The SmartPD Professional Development Model
The Loyola SmartPD approach combines the best aspects of synchronous and asynchronous online professional development. Professional development that typically occurred exclusively in a school or college classroom is now accessed away from the classroom through online SmartPD modules. Synchronous components include sessions scheduled at the beginning of each learning module. These sessions provide opportunities for setting expectations, providing mentoring, and extending collaboration. Asynchronous online components provide students with multimedia-rich content and practice using variety of strategies to support learners, foster interaction, and create cohesive and interactive learning communities. The professional development fostered throughout these experiences provides the foundation for teachers’ to collaborate in school-based contexts, as they apply content and skills, and practice new teaching strategies to improve student achievement.