| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 5, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 9, 2021 |
| Award Number: | 1640117 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Jeffrey Forbes
jforbes@nsf.gov (703)292-5301 CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | October 1, 2016 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $998,862.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,396,552.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2018 = $198,174.00 FY 2020 = $199,516.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
300 5TH AVE STE 2010 WALTHAM MA US 02451-8778 (617)618-2227 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
43 Foundry Avenue Waltham MA US 02453-8313 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
STEM + Computing (STEM+C) Part, CSforAll-Computer Sci for All |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
The Education Development Center proposes a project to develop online professional development (PD) workshops that will prepare a larger and more diverse group of high school teachers to implement the successful Exploring Computer Science (ECS) curriculum, thereby making ECS accessible to a larger and more diverse group of students. Currently ECS PD requires a week of face-to-face training in each of two consecutive summers, in addition, it requires four quarterly in-person ECS workshops during the academic year. Many teachers, particularly those in rural areas, are not able to attend those workshops. This project--ECS PD Online--will provide a much-needed alternative to these four quarterly in-person meetings, leveraging the power of the online environment to create rich learning experiences that are closely aligned with the ECS pedagogical approach and commitment to broadening participation in CS, while providing additional flexibility regarding when and how teachers take part in training.
To ensure that ECS teachers across the nation have access to ongoing professional development during their first year of teaching ECS the project will (1) build and test three asynchronous online PD versions of the quarterly in-person workshops (a fourth having been built under previous funding); (2) develop and pilot additional online activities/resources focused on ECS technical content; (3) develop and test an ECS Online Facilitator training course and system; (4) conduct research in order to understand the promise of effectiveness of online PD for supporting ECS teacher learning; and (5) embed ECS PD Online into the portfolio of ongoing ECS professional development services available to teachers nationwide. The project work is grounded in research in the field of ECS learning, and effective curriculum development, as well as in essential design considerations for online professional development. Recognized experts in the field will provide the project team with frequent and ongoing feedback on research, products, and processes to ensure that the project's goals and objectives are achieved.
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Project Outcomes Report ? NSF Award# 1640117
Project Title: Online Professional Development for Exploring Computer Science
Recipient Organization: EDC
Project/Grant Period: 10/01/2016 ? 09/30/22
PIs: Joyce Malyn-Smith, Principal Investigator; Joanna Goode, Co-Principal Investigator; Kirsten Peterson, Co-Principal Investigator
This project studied how online professional development (PD) can support high school teachers? professional learning of computer science (CS) concepts and practices that have been shown to lead to effective teaching in high school classrooms, and created online professional learning experiences that are accessible to any first-year teacher, any time and any place. The project supported the preparation of well-prepared teachers that have pedagogical skills that foster inclusive and engaging learning. Given the low density of other CS teachers across schools, many teachers are unable to attend workshops during the school year (e.g. geography, travel, family, etc.). Our project aimed to leverage the power and flexibility of online learning by creating an online equivalent of the ECS professional development training.
The Exploring Computer Science (ECS) professional development model consists of an intensive five-day institute followed by four quarterly workshops during the school year to help teachers prepare for teaching upcoming ECS units. Providing teachers from all geographies, including rural communities (who cannot access the face-to-face quarterly workshops), with an online option for the four follow-up workshops has increased the number of ECS teachers nationally and brought ECS into rural communities across the nation. As a result of this project, hundreds of teachers, and thousands of their high school students, will have access to high-quality computer science education.
With input from a Design Team of experienced Exploring Computer Science (ECS) Teacher Facilitators, the project developed a custom online learning environment in WordPress and LearnDash with capacity to host and offer locally-facilitated online PD post-project; an online version of the ECS Weeklong Summer PD for first and second year ECS teachers; and online versions of four quarterly PD sessions: Web Design, Introduction to Programming, Computing and Data Analysis, and Robotics. The project also developed the capacity of ECS facilitators to effectively facilitate the online workshops with fidelity to the ECS high-touch, equity-focused learning community model.
Throughout the iterative design and facilitation, we collected data from teachers to examine how features of the online learning site and workshop supported their needs as novice ECS teachers. We identified the following essential design features: creating an environment that was welcoming, not weeding; ensuring high touch facilitation as opposed to self-guided learning; a focus on teaching, not content; collaborative vs. individual learning; teacher discourse vs. technical jargon; emphasizing equity and instructional practices; and a national CS learning community. (Goode & Peterson, 2020) In addition to these supportive online design features, we also identified several constraints that impacted the effectiveness of this project. For many teachers, finding time to devote to PD during the academic year is challenging. Multiple time zones for participants exacerbated these challenges, especially for arranging synchronous PD sessions. The initial customized site was built on Moodle, which brought its own technical limitations. Finally, we found that teachers had disparate access to technology and high-speed Internet, limiting equitable participation, especially with video.
Our research agenda has uncovered how teachers have experienced online learning in online Professional Development, and how this has influenced their own teaching in online and hybrid environments. These findings will inform and benefit current and future projects focused on preparing teachers in effective online instructional strategies to broaden participation in computer science.
This project?s greatest impacts are on broadening participation of educators nationally in computer science education. Because ECS teachers come from various disciplines, more disciplinary teachers in public schools have increased their capacity and competence to understand computer science concepts and integrate CS activities into their own disciplinary curricula. Because ECS is grounded in activities that celebrate equity and diversity, more disciplinary teachers and classrooms can enjoy equitable instructional practices as teachers apply ECS instructional strategies to other content areas. As a result of participating in ECS online, more teachers have the experience and competence to participate fully and effectively in online learning events within their own disciplines, deepening their own disciplinary learning and more broadly sharing their knowledge and experience with peers. (Goode et al., 2019)
Sources Cited
Joanna Goode, Kirsten Peterson. (2020). Online Professional Development for High School Computer Science Teachers: Features that Support an Equity-Based Professional Learning Community. Computing in science engineering. 22 (5) . Status = Deposited in NSF-PAR Federal Government's License = Acknowledged. (Completed by Peterson, Kirsten on 09/13/2020 ) Full text Citation details
Goode, Joanna and Peterson, Kirsten and Chapman, Gail. (2019). Online Professional Development for Computer Science Teachers: Gender-Inclusive Instructional Design Strategies. International journal of gender science and technology. 11 (3) 394-404. Status = Deposited in NSF-PAR Federal Government's License = Acknowledged. (Completed by Peterson, Kirsten on 09/13/2020 ) Full text Citation details
Last Modified: 12/13/2022
Modified by: Kirsten Peterson
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