Making It Personal: The Future of Professional Learning

As former classroom educators now leading the partnership between ISTE+ASCD and D2L to enhance teachers’ understanding and use of artificial intelligence, we want to share a bit about our thinking on the importance of personalizing professional learning.
 

The ISTE Standards for Educators emphasize educators’ role as self-directed learners, and personalized professional development is essential for meeting standard 2.1.a, which focuses on educators setting their own professional learning goals.

Ask any educator about their best professional learning experience, and you’ll likely hear about engaging sessions, practical topics, and learning they could immediately apply in their classrooms. But personalized professional learning also has the crucial advantages of flexibility and allowing teachers to create their own learning pathways. 
 

High-quality professional learning takes time and in today’s educational environment, time is a precious commodity. Effective educators must find ways to differentiate instruction, connect with families, and plan engaging lessons while staying current with technological and pedagogical advancements. This balancing act, as well as the variation in teacher schedules and learning needs, makes traditional, in-person professional development models increasingly challenging to sustain and make impactful.

This is where personalized models for professional learning can make a difference and why we believe they represent the future of educator development. 

Understanding Personalized Professional Learning

Personalized professional learning places educators at the center of the learning experience. It allows them to set their own goals, learn at their own pace, on their schedule. Unlike traditional professional learning, this approach focuses on competency-based progressions rather than seat time, emphasizing active application and reflection through both formal and informal experiences. Content and delivery methods are tailored to individual educator needs, interests, and career stage.  

This approach mirrors the personalized learning approaches that many educators use with their students. Through authentic scenarios that reflect real classroom challenges, educators deepen their understanding of differentiation by experiencing it themselves.

Three Benefits of Online Professional Learning

In a 2022 survey commissioned by D2L, The Journal reported 71% of teachers expressed interest in “online, on-demand professional learning”. Ninety-one percent of teachers also preferred professional learning that is “targeted to each teacher’s specific, unique needs”. This opens a significant opportunity for greater personalization in educator professional learning. 
 

First, when developed effectively, online learning can be self-paced and transforms how educators engage with their learning. A high school English teacher can learn about teaching writing between classes and during prep periods, rather than having to miss instructional time or stay after school. An art teacher can pause and replay video demonstrations of new techniques until she masters them. Asynchronous learning provides the flexibility in pace and timing needed. 

Second, online professional learning can give educators access to diverse expertise that may not otherwise be available in an in-person setting. It can be expensive and logistically difficult for schools and districts to hire experts to provide in-person sessions, but online formats can break down distances and hierarchies and make expertise widely accessible.   

Finally, online professional learning allows educators to select the content that is aligned with their personal professional learning interests and needs. This may vary based on the subject and grade level taught, career length or goals, and gaps in teaching skills or content knowledge. School districts of all sizes may struggle to serve these differences in in-person professional learning activities, but online learning provides a vehicle for educators to learn content that is relevant to them. 

We strive to model the benefits of personalized online learning in over 20 ISTE U courses that are delivered via the D2L Brightspace platform. These courses cover a wide range of topics, from artificial intelligence to digital citizenship to designing for inclusion. The asynchronous format allows for flexibility in scheduling and the ability to engage with the content from anywhere you have internet access or a cell signal. Learning is structured but self-paced. Many of the courses are supported by an expert instructor, with a cohort of peers serving as an online professional learning community.

Know Your Goals

Schools and districts that are interested in scaling personalized professional learning should start by finding out what their teachers need. It’s important to ask educators what their goals are, whether they prefer learning online or in person, and how they would like to be held accountable for their learning. 
 

Schools typically recognize that educators benefit from connecting with other educators to discuss what they are learning and how they will apply it. This is easier accomplished through online learning, which allows educators to connect with others from around the country and world who share similar goals and interests. According to a 2023 evaluation by Digital Promise, educators who engaged in sustained virtual coaching and mentoring reported improved instructional practices, increased confidence, and a stronger intention to stay in the profession.
 

Online learning is a practical solution that can provide educators with the tools and recommended practices to transform teacher PD from a legacy model to one more centered on teacher agency. This model recognizes teachers as professionals and professional learners to not only drive their growth and impact, but also their satisfaction and retention.

Jessica Garner is the Senior Director of Innovative Learning for ISTE+ASCD. Kassia Gandhi is Vice President, K-12, with D2L. To hear more from Kassia and Jessica, check out their archived webinar discussion on scaling personalized professional learning.

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