Professional Development
NC-NET Academy Course Schedule, 2024-2025
Fall
Enrollment through registration request required – please see enrollment dates below.
Facilitated Courses
Professional Development Strand – Start Teaching Today!
New-to-Teaching Instructors Scheduled Cohort with Capstone Project
Session: New to Teaching Program Cohort
August 2 – September 6, 2024
Early enrollment opens July 14.
Open enrollment begins July 16.
Early enrollment is open.
Format: A 5-week asynchronous course with weekly objectives and discussions and a facilitated capstone project in Week 5.
Completers earn a completion certificate, a professional development badge, and a stipend.
What Do I Need for the First Day of Class?
August 2 – 9, 2024
How Do I Create a Positive Classroom Climate?
August 9 – 16, 2024
How Can I Enrich the Learning Experience?
August 16 – 23, 2024
How Do I Know What They Know? Incorporating Authentic Assessment Practices
August 23 – 30, 2024
CAPSTONE PROJECT: Ready, Set, Go! Next Steps for Instruction
August 30 – September 6, 2024
NEW! Habits of Happy Teachers II: Continuing the Educator Wellness Journey
September 6 – October 14, 2024
Early enrollment opens August 18.
Open enrollment begins August 20.
Format: This is a 5-week facilitated course with weekly objectives and discussions.
Completers earn a completion certificate, a professional development badge, and a stipend.
Revisit, reflect, rejuvenate! This course will cover some of the wellness topics from HHT1, with an infusion of new ideas and practices. We’ll dig further in habits of the mind, and discuss intellectual, social, and occupational wellness strategies for educators. Join us as we reconvene to maintain momentum on educator wellness habits.
Note: Participants must have completed the HHT I course before enrolling.
Habits of Happy Teachers: Perspectives on Thriving in Education
October 11 – November 18, 2024
Early enrollment opens September 22.
Open enrollment begins September 24.
Format: This is a 5-week facilitated course with weekly objectives and discussions.
Completers earn a completion certificate, a professional development badge, and a stipend.
Teaching has always been a demanding field, requiring intellectual curiosity, creativity, and stamina. The post-Covid classroom environment has continued to challenge faculty and students in a multitude of ways. Excitement and motivation for teaching and learning is still in recovery mode. This course provides opportunities for reflecting on our experiences, drawing inspiration from our colleagues, exploring habits that promote wellness, and regaining our “spark.” You will come away with fresh perspectives on educator social-emotional support, stress management, motivation, supportive relationships, successful
habits, and much more!
On-Demand Courses for Adjunct and New Faculty
Professional Development Strand – Start Teaching Today!
On-Demand Courses for New-to-Teaching CTE Instructors
Format: This strand consists of self-paced courses. Self-enroll at any time and participate as time permits.
Completion of each course conveys a professional development mini-badge. Completers of all four courses earn a badge for the strand.
What Do I Need for the First Day of Class? ENROLL
You’ve been hired for your professional experience and subject-matter expertise but have never taught. Now what? If you are unsure about where to begin, this is the course for you. You will have access to tips and tools that will help you launch your successful teaching career. The other courses in this strand will then help you take it to the next level.
How Do I Create a Positive Classroom Climate to Support Adult Learners? ENROLL
Learning environments play a key role in establishing classroom climate. The physical and online classrooms need to optimize positive student interaction with the content, each other, and the instructor. In this time of both human and computer viruses, safety is a fundamental consideration. You will also want to consider how socio-emotional factors impact adult learning. How does providing frequent communication, setting clear expectations, and practicing inclusivity help you build a supportive, respectful climate? This course is designed to help you examine the total learning environment through your students’ eyes.
How Can I Enrich the Learning Experience? Making “A-ha!” Happen ENROLL
Student engagement with the concepts they are learning provides more “a-ha!” moments (and content retention) than memorization plus testing or other low-engagement teaching methods. What you might not know is that it makes teaching more fun when you are the facilitator not just the content provider. Hands-on learning is a natural fit for career and technical education but hands-on is only part of the active learning toolbox. In this course you will be introduced to a range of student engagement strategies and will select 1-2 to integrate into your teaching practice.
How Do I Know What They Know? Incorporating Authentic Assessment Practices ENROLL
While our students take myriad assessments over their educational career, they probably only remember the summative, high-stakes tests—like those for professional certification or licensure. But formative, low-stakes tests (and other assessments) provide useful snapshots along the way that can tell us what students understand right now and whether they are likely to be able to build on that knowledge in the future. In this course, you will learn how to develop assessments that create a natural feedback loop for your teaching practice, providing opportunities for concept clarification and student referral to additional resources.
Professional Development Strand – On-Demand Courses— Employability Skills for Student Success in the Workplace
Format: This strand consists of self-paced courses. Self-enroll at any time and participate as time permits.
Completion of each course conveys a professional development mini-badge. Completers of all four courses earn a badge for the strand.
Critical Thinking for the 21 st Century ENROLL
Our students have millions of resources for answering simple questions at their fingertips. But memorizing or searching the internet is not very intellectually stimulating and the knowledge gained is not likely to stick in any meaningful way. What if we took a page from the healthcare, criminal justice, or automotive syllabus and challenged our students with problem- or case-based learning? In this course you will learn how to teach critical thinking processes such as analysis, application, synthesis, and reflection and develop activities for students to practice using it.
Employability: Teaching Necessary Skills NOW! ENROLL
It is common to hear industry leaders share their desire to find entry-level workers with strong soft skills, or what we commonly refer to as employability skills. Employers often say their biggest challenges include finding and hiring workers who have good communication skills, can show up on time, and can work effectively in teams. This course is designed to help instructors empower students by developing awareness of the importance of employability skills. The content emphasizes the value of developing good habits and behavior that shape an individual’s reputation as a skilled, competent, and responsible professional.
Cyber for CTE: Professional Development for Non-IT Instructors ENROLL
Format: This is a facilitated 3-week course with weekly objectives and discussions.
Course completers earn a professional development badge.
While responsibility for cybersecurity may technically fall within the IT department, cyber awareness and cyber safety are for everyone. How can you help keep your college system secure? What kinds of cyber incidents are happening to companies in your teaching field? In this course we will explore the hidden world behind your keyboard, programs, apps, and smart devices and learn how to prevent electronic intrusions and information theft.
Also coming in 2024-2025
Moodle Mastery 101: A Foundation in the Moodle Learning Management System
Format: This is a 4-week facilitated course with weekly objectives and discussions.
Course completers earn a professional development badge and stipend.
This course is designed to provide faculty with the fundamentals in using the Moodle. Participants will learn the very basics of creating labels, activities, resources and setting up a simple grade book for on-going and active Moodle courses. Upon successful completion of the course, participants will be able to
- Add activity completion rules and restrictions on assignments and modules.
- Create an instructor block.
- Create descriptive text.
- Add files and resources.
- Add an activity
- Set up a basic gradebook.
- Locate resources that assist with Moodle Setup.
Moodle Mastery 102
Format: This is a 4-week facilitated course with weekly objectives and discussions.
Course completers earn a professional development badge and stipend.
Moodle Mastery 102 is the second course in the Moodle Mastery series. Moodle Mastery 102 will teach and model Moodle tools and strategies to assist with pacing and self-regulated learning. You will practice using tools and techniques to help students regulate their time in the online setting and methods to pace students. Additionally, the course covers advanced gradebook setup, Moodle quiz creation, and discussions forums.
Questions? Please email academy@nc-net.info for additional information.