PL Plan Outline Description
Professional Learning (PL) has been a planned component of my innovation plan from the start. I knew as my ideas developed there was a need for PL on several levels to foster success for the overall plan.
PL is one of the influence points of my innovation plan to administration and colleagues. The PL plan calls for me and my colleague Andy Coughlan to model our experiences with eportfolios since our formal application of the innovation plan beginning Fall 2015 with the University Press (UP) students.
An ideal time frame to implement a departmental eportfolio initiative would be summer prior to a fall semester simply because fewer colleagues teach summer courses and more individual attention could be applied to departmental PL. However, I have designed my innovation plan and PL to be implemented on any time frame or academic calendar.
Departmental PL would begin with small group presentations with the opportunity for at least two classroom opportunities per week over the last two weeks in May. Individual or small group presentations could be made throughout June and July, barring faculty and staff vacations, research travel, etc. Coughlan and I would either team teach these sessions or rotate individual instruction for these opportunities.
Colleagues teaching summer courses would have the option, at the discretion of the department chair, to incorporate eportfolios for their learners as pilot programs. The eportfolio plan and faculty PL are designed to fit any timeframe. Instructional support is available daily to any one – instructor or learner, via online, email or in person in the Perkins newsroom at 202 Carl Parker Building 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., Monday – Friday. Other times would available by appointment if needed. During regular semesters, Wednesday’s would not be available due to UP publication deadline and some other time blocks might not be available because Andy and I may be teaching a class at that time. Additional locations could include instructor’s individual offices and departmental lab spaces.
Additional support is provided via CourseSites, a Blackboard product, and can be used as an instructional companion to both learners and instructors. There will be a posting area on the site for instructors to provide examples of learners and their own work that could be monitored and reflected on by Andy and myself, the departmental chair and the dean.
Our faculty will have a variety of needs for personalizing and individualizing their instructional practices and as Coughlan and I lead instructional support, we are going to identify additional members to incorporate into the instructional support group. Additionally, instructors using specific learning practices will be grouped into a self-supporting resource group. For example, we have courses for video production, TV production and film production. Those instructors are going to have similar needs although the purpose of their products might be different. They are going to need support for upload and hosting large files, organizing content and access, etc. Those folks would be grouped and encouraged to begin to develop their own specialized PL and emphasizing reflection of practices for adaption or modification.
As individual support groups develop within the department, the department chair is going to devote a section of the monthly departmental meeting to address and recognize issues or examples of the program’s implementation.
Presentation
I made a presentation using Canva that I would use in the introductory PL session. Both links are for the same presentation – one is html based, the other is an embed for my WordPress eportfolio.
https://www.canva.com/design/DACh5LofQ78/view
3 Column Table of Professional Learning (PL) Goals:
| Learning Goals | Learning Activities | Assessment Activities |
| Foundational
Instructors are going to model UP practices to incorporate eportfolios in their courses. Reflect on and research instructional theories and strategy |
Analysis and evaluation of student important to creating a Significant Learning Environment
Discussion and research of topics & engagement options. |
Introduce & discuss Harapnuik’s COVA, Fink’s Taxonomy, Dweck’s Mindset
Theories.
Utilizing UP culture of instruction, peer engagement & feedback. |
| Application
Maestro and COVA concepts of student-centered learning and coaching to create UP content |
Examples of how learners brainstorm story package concepts- Fink’s tools
Determining division of work & assign teams as needed
Discussion & reflection |
Research & discuss assignment ideas
Create learning assignments for instructor courses. |
| Integration I
(Integration components 1-3 are simultaneous) Instructors assess & analyze factors affecting student achievement |
Ask yourself “Why are you doing this….?”
Ask “How this is going to be accomplished by learners?” |
Discuss, reflect and model examples
Develop & post Blackboard content |
| Integration 2
Learners/coaches analyze & evaluate final content creation |
Learners/coaches assess content for editing & publishing & complete layout | Learners/coaches publish Blackboard content. |
| Integration 3
Learners/coaches synthesize content & reactions |
Learners/coaches determine future assignment ideas | Learners/coaches monitor & report/respond to engagement |
| Instructor/Learner Dimensions/Caring
Learners & coaches analyze production roles & what impact UP culture has on growth mindset of creating significant, effective learning environment |
Learners discuss & reflect on Dweck’s mindset theory & Fink’s Taxonomy
Coaches/faculty discuss & reflect on Ryan’s Maestro Theory & Dweck’s mindset theory & Thomas and Brown’s “A New Culture of Learning.”; Harapnuik’s COVA |
Learners read Dweck’s, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.
Coaches/faculty review & reflect on plan and eportfolios for creating a student-centered significant learning environment. |
