Evaluate results of professional learning programs to determine the effectiveness on deepening teacher content knowledge, improving teacher pedagogical skills and/or increasing student learning. (ISTE 2011)
There is a saying that many data scientists in computer science frequently use: ‘you get what you measure’. Another version of this same phrase is often used by managers: ‘if you can measure it, you can manage it’. Both of these versions get at the value of the last performance indicator for the professional development and program evaluation standard. It seems rather obvious, but it is amazing how many decisions are made about professional development without having the necessary data.
In my post on making professional development successful, I describe my first experiences with the professional development offered to instructors at my school. One of my more successful experiences covers the user of the Canvas learning management system. The course is available in Canvas itself. The idea is that educators can use this course to get both a student view of Canvas while also learning about Canvas features.
Canvas has built-in ways to assess and report student results. In the scenario of professional development, the educators are the students. Thus, one possible result that can be used to evaluate the success of this particular professional learning program are the educator’s Canvas assessments and reports. This is the same way that educators are going to ‘grade’ their students. Yet, at my institution, these Canvas results are neither collected or analyzed in any way.
This lead me on a journey to discover how my fellow faculty actually used the Canvas learning management system. As part of my SPU master’s program, I conducted a survey of my fellow faculty on their Canvas usage. My survey focused on the asking participants about Canvas features that they believe had a positive or negative impact on either the instructor’s teaching experience or the student’s learning experience. The results of my survey showed that faculty felt that Canvas had an overall positive impact on both instructor’s teaching experience and student’s learning experience. However, there were specific results that could be used to help drive future professional development. Specifically, the chart below shows that 100% of the instructors surveyed with more than 5 years of Canvas experience felt that several Canvas features (Badges and Chat) did not have a positive impact on the teaching experience, and represent great feedback for the next set of professional development programs.
References
- International Society for Technology in Education. (ISTE; 2011). Standards for Coaches. https://id.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-C_PDF.pdf.