Professional development for educators
Professional development is an essential way for teachers to refine their strategies, methods, and understanding of their work. In order to provide educators with the tools they need, a professional development (also known simply as “PD”) marketplace has developed around online and offline tools created for teacher training.
This list is a guide to the major and minor players in the PD field. Our analysis of each competitor shows that School Improvement Network’s PD 360 has the most tools and training videos in the industry, and it’s also one of the cheapest. Teachers can purchase individual PD 360 licenses for $125, but the cheapest method is to purchase a license for an entire school or district, which often brings the price to well under $100 per license.
Each school and district must determine what their needs are and what is most effective. We hope to have been as open and objective as possible in the following analysis.
PD 360 – School Improvement Network
PD 360 has over 1,500 videos, training from 120 experts, 97 topics, a community of 700,000, new content added daily, and a year’s full access costs around $100 or less per teacher. The platform is also integrated with an observation tool equipped with prescriptive technology, Common Core standards training, and a unique product for Title I schools. The PD 360 community is closed to the public.
Pros: You get the most bang for your buck. The entire PD 360 platform costs less per instructor than any competitor’s course.
Cons: The platform is currently built on Flash.
In a nutshell: School Improvement Network offers a true feat which is unstoppably effective and profitable.
EdWeb
EdWeb has a store for K12 educators that sells e-books and teacher support materials, but does not present itself as a focused resource for teacher improvement. The store and its products are open and available to anyone, although the main product seems to be the online community of teachers. The number of users is not published.
Pros: EdWeb sends weekly emails to help subscribers stay up to date.
Cons: The community is open access, which means you don’t have to be a teacher to participate in the forums. The user interface is very difficult to navigate and community participation is small.
Bottom line: the EdWeb site only provides forum capabilities, there is no professional development connecting to the community. EdWeb sends helpful emails, but the community is difficult to navigate.
school network
Schoolnet focuses on improving education through data analytics and positions itself as “the leader in data-driven education for K-12 school systems.” They have an open access community and their website seems to offer a la carte professional development solutions. The number of experts, users and community participants is not published. Pearson Education purchased Schoolnet in April 2011.
Pros: Pearson Education may be able to expand on Schoolnet’s resources.
Cons: The community is open access. Its products are not an integral whole.
Bottom line: Schoolnet provides free resources on its website to help educators as much as possible. They have connected tools to their community, and Pearson Education will likely be able to extend the resources of Schoolnet.
edutopia
Edutopia is supported by the George Lucas Educational Foundation. Edutopia offers 150 free videos averaging four minutes each, a community of over 100,000 members, and other free resources for educational professional development. The community is open access, so the public can and does participate in the forums.
Pros: The free materials are of high quality and the community is well engaged.
Cons: Materials and resources are limited, the community is open to the public, and the community is relatively small.
Bottom line: Edutopia may be one of the best free resources available for teachers, but the resources are very limited.
SimpleK12
SimpleK12 offers a community as the main professional development solution. The community does not have free registration like all other communities have in this competitive analysis; a registration fee of $297 per year will give a person access to the community. SimpleK12 claims to serve 500,000 worldwide and offers 500 hours of classroom technology instructional videos in the community.
Pros: If the community caters to 500,000 then there could potentially be a good turnout.
Cons: There is no way to try the product without buying it, and it is quite expensive.
Bottom line: SimpleK12 is expensive and veiled.
Knowledge delivery systems
Knowledge Delivery Systems (KDS) has eClassroom, mVal, eWalk, and custom PD programs for some of their core products. KDS does not provide a community, but it does provide a way for educators following the same course to communicate with each other. The eClassroom product is the platform where educators take courses that they buy one at a time. The mVal product is an assessment tool and eWalk is a classroom walkthrough tool. KDS offers approximately 760 hours of training videos from 55 experts.
Pros: Educators have up to 760 hours of content to choose from and assessment tools that work effectively.
Cons: Observation and assessment tools are not integrated with a professional development platform, KDS does not offer a community, and districts and teachers buy one course at a time.
Bottom line: KDS primarily offers specialized courses from which educators can earn college credit, but they are not intended to be a district-wide solution.
teaching landscape
Teachscape offers courses that a school or district must purchase one at a time. They offer 108 courses from 12 experts as of July 2011. Teachscape’s feat it’s the 360-degree camera technology they employ with their classroom observation deck.
Pros: Teachscape features a 360-degree camera for its observation technology.
Cons: Teachscape Professional Development, like many other companies in the industry, is only available one course at a time from just twelve experts. They also do not offer an online professional learning community.
Bottom line: Teachscape provides extensive training, and any training should apply universally.
ASCD
ASCD is a nonprofit organization serving 160,000 educators in 148 countries with countless products. ASCD offers various levels of membership, from a $25 student membership to a $219 premium membership (as of July 2011). ASCD offers several professional development solutions, including PD in Focus, a professional development platform with 90 hours of video and 49 experts. The community is theoretically open to everyone, but the group facilitator must approve each member.
Pros: ASCD has many resources at its disposal, which means that users have the opportunity to access many resources in one place.
Cons: Resources are scarce and actual PD training is minimal with only 90 hours, 55 hours and a small community.
Bottom line: ASCD is affordable due to its membership breakdown. There are good resources, but those resources are scarce.
PBS Teacher Line
PBS Teacherline offers 130 graduate courses for teachers. They recently added Peer Connection, their own online community. Courses and trainings are available one at a time, and separate licenses are purchased for each user.
Pros: The number of postgraduate courses available is tempting for anyone looking to advance through school while in their career.
Cons: The community is not free and educators must pay for each resource they use instead of having an open library. Licensing makes providing specific training to multiple educators a logistical challenge.
Bottom line: PBS Teacherline is a good option if educators want to work toward a higher degree.
learner.org
The Annenberg Foundation has created Learner.org to provide free educational resources online. Learner.org has excellent resources for the average learner, but the site is not designed for professional development at the district or school level.
Advantages: Everything is quality and everything is free.
Cons: Learner.org is not a viable resource for specific training as its PD content is limited.
Bottom line: Learner.org is the professional student’s dream, but it is not a source of training for classroom management or teaching techniques.
Staff Development for Educators
Staff Development for Educators (SDE) coordinates traditional and online professional development. SDE does not provide a community to collaborate in, and online courses are only available with individual licenses. Educators can choose any of 54 courses to purchase and follow online.
Pros: It’s simple and straightforward: each teacher buys a course and completes it.
Cons: SDE does not provide a true DP library, community, or platform.
Bottom line: SDE started out as a traditional PD company and they have retained that model even in their online efforts.
Feel free to leave comments about things we may have overlooked, companies you’ve seen or used, and your honest and respectful opinion of what has worked for you.