Our first core competency is a deep understanding of how to design, develop, and implement technology-based projects in education. We understand and build professional learning opportunities that are pedagogically sound and technologically robust.
Secondly, we understand schools and the culture of K-12 education – we know how to implement projects successfully in schools and with educators.
Third, we understand partnerships and we know how to be a good partner. We have designed and built many significant professional learning projects with and for our partner state education departments, schools, universities, and other education agencies.
We feel these competencies are “core” because they are embodied by our mission, represent our fundamental business model, and are absolutely central to all of our projects and are what we’ve worked on and honed for many years.
The following are our most popular PD programs. They’re successful because they were each co-created in conjunction with one or more partner agencies and were custom built to respond to specific, identified needs in the education community.
Our “secret sauce” has been our ongoing ability to design, build and sustain an organization that attracts top education and technology professionals who are mission-driven and committed to the development of highly impactful projects that advance teaching and learning. We are successful because we pay constant attention to maintaining a healthy organizational culture that promotes collegiality, collaboration, hard work, and excellence. An additional important ingredient in our secret sauce is our relentless, neurotic responsiveness to our partners and clients.
Our professional development programs, courses, and workshops for teachers are designed to deliver practical, research-based approaches that ultimately change student behavior. One philosophy we often iterate is, “Learn it today, use it tomorrow.” Although the courses and modules are all buttressed with current and applicable research, we emphasize practicality in the classroom. Many teachers have called our classes “transformational” to their teaching.
Our professional development programs for school leaders are the same – we rely on solid research foundations but emphasize practical applications in real-world settings.
A significant aspect of all of our professional development design is the amount and quality of interactions between and among participants and facilitators.
We design our professional development programs to require teachers and school leaders to go beyond learning new content. Our approach requires educators to implement new practices in their classrooms, schools and the broader educational communities in which they work. By focusing ideas and approaches on changing student behaviors we keep the “end game” (student achievement and success) in mind. Our courses emphasize multiple practice opportunities with multiple chances to use new skills and ideas within the course, followed by real-world implementation and, finally, reflection on results.
The design of our professional learning projects always focus on ideas and approaches that are immediately applicable in the workplace. We design “job embedded” activities and reflective exercises that require participants to understand the application of the ideas and approaches that we present. The design of our courses and modules include experiential learning models, inductive experiences, safe practice activities, and coached implementation. Taken together, these design elements help ensure fidelity of use and large-scale dissemination.
We are prepared and equipped to provide professional development in any state in the United States and internationally with very little lead-time. We have worked in the majority of the states within the United States, and in fifty-six countries worldwide.
Within thirty to sixty days, PLS 3rd Learning can scale up to cover any geographic area necessary.
Yes. We have worked with many large organizations as a “white-labeled” partner. We are very comfortable branding our content and systems as HP.
We have a fully equipped, in-house marketing and design team with significant experience in the advertising industry. We not only respect the integrity of branding guidelines, but have the expertise to convert all of our content professionally and precisely to HP branding guidelines.
We will work quickly to respond to any timeline required. While every project timeline varies based on the scope needed, our creative expertise and attention to detail will make this work a top priority and require little effort to complete it as quickly as possible.
We have not created a MOOC at this time, since our focus has been on courses that provide teachers with university-based or professional development credit. However, once we understand the target audience, we have the ability to develop and deliver a MOOC as needed. We would use our LMS as the core and a decentralized collaboration and assessment design to accommodate the greatest flexibility for participant communication and interaction.
Our online course development process always “begins with the end in mind” – which is the now classic “backwards design” approach that is showing the greatest results for educators (both as a method and a model of good instructional design). Within that framework, we adhere to the ADDIE model for course development: Analysis (with experts in the field), Design (using a “backwards design” approach), Development (with state-of-the-art technology specialists and instructional designers), Implementation (beginning with field testing), and Evaluation (with regular and continuous refinement based on instructor and participant feedback). Our design team on each effort includes instructional designers, subject matter experts, technology specialists, and field testers.
All courses and PD modules include evidence-based research, practical examples, opportunities for practice, and formative and summative assessments (with published rubrics for assessments).
We strongly believe that the model of facilitated learning included in all of our online PD offerings greatly enhances the quality of the experience for the participating educator. Our efforts rely first and foremost on good pedagogy. That means that online PD, for example, must be facilitated (asynchronously) by experts who can provide critical feedback and suggestions on every aspect of the participant experience.
A second aspect of our work that makes us stand out is our commitment to the continuous improvement of all of our courses and PD modules. Our courses are never “done” – they are regularly modified as participant and instructor feedback comes in.
Lastly, our courses and PD offerings are co-created with our partners. We are committed to developing offerings that address specific, and often unique, needs of groups of educators.