Advanced Professional Certificate in
Online Teaching: Online Program

This certificate program is designed for educators desiring to develop and/or teach online courses for K-12 students. When taking the four online courses in sequence, the student builds an expertise in course design, evaluation of student learning, facilitating and communicating in an online environment, and developing an online course. Courses are also available individually, for educators, professionals, alumni, and others who want to learn or reinforce online teaching. 

Prerequisite for Certificate Program: Bachelor's Degree

*prerequisites for ECOMP 6204: ECOMP 6201, 6202, 6203
PLEASE NOTE: The Technology in Education CAGS/Ed.S. course ECOMP 7017 is ineligible as a substitution for any course in this program.

Course Descriptions

ECOMP 6201 Online Teaching: An Introduction for K-12 Educators
This course is designed to introduce teaching online to K12 educators. Utilizing a constructivist learning approach, we will explore the advantages of online learning and features of online environments and online collaborative tools, and examine the best pedagogical practices for teaching and learning online. Expectations, characteristics, and needs of online learners will be examined and specific strategies to help students assess their readiness to learn online will be developed. Solutions for involving all of the K12 stakeholders and the challenge of keeping students motivated to produce quality work through online learning will be explored.

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ECOMP 6202 Online Teaching: Assessment and Evaluation
This course examines assessment and evaluation in an online learning environment from the perspective of teachers and students in K-12 environments. A wide variety of effective assessment strategies are presented, including self-evaluation, authentic assessment, triangulation, continuous evaluation, pre- and post-testing, use of observational data, and others. Particular attention is paid to selecting the most appropriate and engaging assessment strategies for students and content that addresses the needs of students, keeping in mind the need to apply Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles when selecting assessment methods.

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ECOMP 6203 Online Teaching: Building Communities and Facilitating Student Discussions
This course focuses on building the expertise needed to create a supportive and constructive online learning environment through appropriate facilitation techniques and strategies. Participants investigate various aspects of facilitating online discussions, including teacher and peer moderated communication, developing guidelines and modeling substantive discussions, and the use of multiple technologies to enhance contact with and among students.

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ECOMP 6204 Online Teaching: Course Design, Development, and Strategies
This course provides the opportunity to synthesize components of online teaching by involving participants in the development of an online course. Content and age appropriate online activities and strategies that will engage students are studied and developed. Educational theory, best practices in online learning, principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and use of emerging technologies are researched, analyzed and used to produce online lessons that are viable and engage students in authentic learning.

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Lesley University reserves the right to unilaterally add, withdraw, or revise any course offering in the above-mentioned program of study, including policies, provisions, requirements, and fees.

Lesley University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity institution and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, religion, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, handicap or disability in its education programs, employment, or in admissions to, access to or treatment in its programs or activities.