The Regional Education Laboratory (REL) Northwest, led by WestEd, is creating a toolkit to facilitate the adoption of the recommendations in a practice guide on technology and postsecondary instruction from the Institute of Education Sciences at the Department of Education. In this project, CCRC will evaluate a professional learning component of the toolkit.
The practice guide, Using Technology to Support Postsecondary Student Learning, offers strategies for postsecondary instructors and instructional designers to effectively use technology to support learning and guides administrators in ways to institutionalize professional learning. REL Northwest’s toolkit, developed in partnership with Portland Community College, will provide resources and activities to enhance instructors’ knowledge of evidence-based practices, improve implementation, and build institutional capacity to support continuous improvement. The toolkit will include a set of professional learning resources to help instructors learn about the practice guide recommendations.
CCRC will lead a mixed-methods evaluation of the professional learning component of the toolkit. The evaluation will examine the implementation of the professional learning course and its impact on community college instructors and students at community colleges in Oregon using a randomized controlled trial.
This project is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through a contract with WestEd.