Personalized, Collaborative Professional Learning from Anywhere

Edina Public Schools provides personalized professional development for their teachers, and working remotely hasn’t derailed their plans.

Educators can now meet re-licensure requirements and stay on track toward career and personal development goals, despite the difficult challenges presented by the global pandemic. Teachers and administrators also gained back a ton of time thanks to automated course completion reporting. Convenient learning options have been a key ingredient of their success. Secure online access means teachers can learn and collaborate anywhere, anytime.

In this case study, we’ll look at the tools Edina Public Schools uses to help them support teachers and simplify administrative tasks around planning, tracking, and verifying professional learning.

Need for easier professional development tracking and better collaboration

Edina Public Schools previously used a professional learning solution, but teachers had to log in to a separate re-licensure system to record course completion information. The whole process was time-consuming and difficult, wasting precious time for busy teachers. New hires had to be trained both on the professional development system to take courses and the re-licensure system to make sure they could satisfy learning requirements.

Another problem with the district’s previous solution was its inability to support asynchronous collaboration online. Teaching students always takes priority, so teachers need the flexibility to complete their learning activities when and where it’s most convenient. District leadership knew this, but they also wanted to find a solution that would encourage collaboration to improve professional learning engagement and effectiveness in a single solution, as called for by their technology plan. Michael Walker, Secondary Digital Learning Specialist, says, “Our technology plan called for a one-stop-shop, and that was part of our decision to go with PowerSchool.”

Planning, managing, and tracking made simple

Five and a half years ago, the district implemented PowerSchool Professional Learning, combining it with Schoology Learning for learning content. Professional Learning simplifies planning, managing, and tracking professional development. It also automates reporting for re-licensure, saving time and headaches for teachers. Schoology Learning provides teachers with the same robust virtual learning experience that their students enjoy.

Libby Sandvick, Peer Coach Facilitator at Edina Public Schools, says the combination of Professional Learning and Schoology personalizes the whole experience because teachers can easily see all course offerings and choose the right ones for their career growth. “We’re able to offer employees various pathways to achieve the learning credits they need, so they can learn what they want, at a time that works for them,” says Sandvick. Teachers can also work with administrators to plan professional learning based on observation feedback from within PowerSchool Perform, their teacher evaluations system.

The big win for everyone is how much easier it is to track and report earned professional learning credits for re-licensure. The new automated process takes a tedious administrative task off teachers’ plates and gives them more time to focus on completing professional learning courses and getting back to teaching their students.

Personalized, engaging professional learning content

Planning teacher professional development based on individual needs gives teachers more value for the time they spend earning their credits. Rather than a uniform approach, which often requires teachers to register for irrelevant or remedial learning, Edina ensures teachers register for relevant and convenient courses. Every hour spent completing professional learning courses is another step toward classroom success and career growth.

Schoology Learning gives teachers the same collaborative, robust virtual learning experience as their students. For Steve Buettner, Director of Media and Technology Services, collaboration while working remotely has been a huge improvement for the district’s professional learning program. “It’s really broken down barriers of time and space for us,” Buettner says. It’s a benefit they’ll enjoy after teachers and staff return to working in schools because they’ll still learn together even if they work in different buildings.

In addition to simplifying and increasing the value of time teachers can spend learning, it’s also given them the chance to be students in the virtual environment, which is helping them better understand and support their students through challenging times. “By having our teachers use Schoology as a student, they’re able to understand what may or may not be working for their students,” Sandvick says. Using this experiential knowledge, teachers can, in turn, create a more engaging experience for students.