Trevecca Nazarene University is offering free online professional development training that will help prepare local teachers as they teach remotely.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought classroom instruction to a screeching halt across the country while K-12 educators scrambled to convert their teaching plans to remote teaching modules.

In Nashville, Tennessee, nearly 90,000 students were affected by the move to remote instruction. Across the state of Tennessee, the 22^nd largest school system in the nation, just over 1 million kindergarten through 12^th grade students made the shift.

The university’s training will focus on designing classes for remote instruction, using technology to enhance learning outcomes, how to use a variety of learning management systems, and more.

“This free, online training will help equip Tennessee educators who serve our state’s K-12 student population with the necessary tools and skills needed for remote instruction,” said Dean Diehl, dean of Trevecca’s School of Graduate and Continuing Studies. “It will also provide a valuable opportunity for teachers to network with other educational professionals who are facing the same challenges and better equip them for the education methods of the future.”

Created with the help of leading Tennessee school districts, universities, and leadership from the online learning consortium, participants will learn from proven leaders who excel in digital literacy.

One of those leaders is LaMetrius Daniels, the director of Trevecca’s Center for Innovative Instruction. Daniels leads a team of five full-time instructional designers to develop online courses for the University. She also serves as the director of the University’s Master of Science in instructional design and technology, a program that equips educators and instructors in all industries to build everything from online educational courses to digital training seminars. 

“Through this professional development course, participants will be able to get hands-on experience and practice what they’re learning through project-based assignments,” she said. “We want educators to walk away from this class with skills they can immediately put into practice as they build rich digital learning environments for their students.”

When COVID-19 made in-person classes unwise, Daniels and her team helped Trevecca faculty members convert more than 500 face-to-face courses to remote instruction, bringing Trevecca’s online student population to just over 4,000.

Participants can expect the free online course to help them: 

• • Develop remote classroom design 
• • Demonstrate effective use of instructional technology tools for remote instruction
• • Create supplemental, blended or hybrid content deliveries
• • Utilize a variety of learning management systems to manage content
• • Apply ADA Compliance and Accessibility for Universal Design
• • Apply copyright laws to remote classroom instruction
• • Implement a specialized IEP plan for content creation
• • Improve teaching resiliency

For more information about the free training, educators should visit www.Trevecca.edu/remoteinstruction.

--Trevecca Nazarene University