I don’t have any hard data but it’s not likely a stretch to say that the vast majority of educators in 2021 have not only experienced some form of virtual learning but have become quite comfortable in various environments both as teachers and as learners. The convenience factor has shifted from an advantage to a necessity. Whether it’s a synchronous webinar or a collection of just in time resources online learning has firmly embedded itself into the professional learning (PL) landscape. Of course that’s not to say it’s working the same for everyone, or that everyone has the mindset to utilize this format effectively.
ALP has had a long standing relationship with Michigan Virtual and it’s because of that relationship and social capital built over time, they invited us to design a “course” focused on student agency (I’ve put “course” in quotes for a reason). Michigan Virtual is a proven online learning destination for Michigan students as well as educators. For educators, they offer courses for free as well as paid and these courses are often used as credits for their professional learning certificates or SCECHs: State Continuing Education Clock Hours.
The Student Agency course began with a focus on students but soon we realized that agency for all learners, including educators would better serve the Michigan community. This 3-hour course would be self-paced and something highly practical.
When most of us hear the word “course” certain constructs come to mind. We likely see a time constraint, assignments to be finished and perhaps an evaluation to complete the experience. While all those can be useful constraints, we often find them to limit how we might repurpose the content and ideas that are housed within the course. To that end, our goal became to create a resource that might serve multiple purposes. Certainly, it would need to stay true to the self-paced course experience but beyond that, how could the content and structure of the course be used in other contexts?
We decided to add a facilitator’s guide that could be used by principals and perhaps district leads. The idea was that a principal could take elements of the course and embed that into a school’s professional learning plan. For example, knowing that planning for PL can be a challenge, we wanted to create bite-sized learning that might fit into a staff meeting. We also knew that those leading professional learning within a district or region have a slightly different relationship with educators than a principal so our guide would account for that and offer nuanced differences in their implementation.
We also wanted to be clear that the idea of agency was not necessarily something that needed to be the explicit focus of a professional learning offering. We believe the conversation around agency is relevant to essentially all conversations about learning. Agency is at the heart of learning and something education is coalescing around as a community. So whether you’re facilitating a course on mathematics, assessment, blended learning or social and emotional learning, the concept of agency ought to be included. We wanted the contents of this course that includes playlists, discussion protocols and questions to be used in a way that facilitators or learners see fit. To that end, we tried to ensure that agency was built into the course.
So while we did indeed build a course, we believe it could be more than that. The team at Michigan Virtual also believes in empowering learners to use their platform in ways that best serve the needs of students and educators across the state. Their feedback and inclusion of various Michigan educators to provide feedback and insight resulted in a collection of resources, we are proud to put our name behind.
