ASU launches professional learning hub for educators

Among perhaps no other profession is the importance of continued education as well-understood as it is among educators themselves. 

Unfortunately, what educators also know is that much of what they are required to learn throughout their careers is more about satisfying bureaucratic mandates than it is about meaningful advancement that translates to student success.

At Arizona State University, a new professional development resource hopes to change that: The recent launch of the ASU Professional Educator Learning Hub aims to support educators in pre-K–12 schools and other learning environments who wish to do more than just check a box when it comes to adding to their skill sets.

The Professional Educator Learning Hub is designed both for individual educators and for administrative leaders responsible for professional learning in school systems. 

Individual educators can browse and take courses a la carte. School and system leaders can also partner with the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College professional learning team to design and purchase tailored subscription packages for their employees.

“We work with educators and education leaders every day in Arizona and beyond,” said Carole Basile, dean of Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. “We conducted national surveys for this project, and educators have told us in no uncertain terms that many professional learning requirements are too much about complying with bureaucratic mandates and too little about offering educators either professional advancement or meaningful ways to help students.

“Educators also told us that too much of their existing professional learning options are transactional, non-visionary and an exercise in checking a box. ASU brings something special to the professional learning space because of how we operate every day at the intersection of learner experience, educator experience, education policy and organizational design. We want to be different — and better — and we have designed the Professional Educator Learning Hub to meet these market demands.”

“ASU’s Professional Educator Learning Hub is another step in our journey to expand access to learners at every stage of life,” said Maria Anguiano, executive vice president of Learning Enterprise at ASU. “This new offering curates the best of ASU’s K–12 professional development offerings from across our institution to deliver a comprehensive library of options that individuals and districts can build into tailored programs. We are committed to supporting educators across the nation with a modern, flexible professional development resource that adapts to the unique needs of each school and district.”

The ASU Professional Educator Learning Hub offers a wide range of topics, modalities and earning options. Educators can use it to learn new skills, master existing ones, plan for career advancement and ramp up to an advanced degree.

At launch, the site offers more than 100 courses and other learning experiences that are designed to fit into educators' busy schedules. Flexible course formats include self-paced, instructor-led and optional live sessions. Educators can earn microcredentials, and topics available at launch include online pedagogy, using generative AI in teaching and team collaboration.

Some courses stack to specializations related to specific educator roles and skill sets.

Specializations available at launch include Augmented Creativity and Learning with AI (9 courses); Civics, History and Media Literacy (9 courses); and Computer Science Endorsement (3 courses). 

Some specializations are also credit-eligible for students who wish to transfer credit into ASU’s MA in education program.

The ASU Professional Educator Learning Hub reflects ASU’s distinctive strengths in team-based staffing models, educator specialization and tech-enabled learning and instruction. The portfolio of courses takes advantage of ASU’s vast intellectual and instructional expertise. Capabilities include:

• Format flexibility so users can choose how to learn and earn.
• Online courses designed at ASU, a global leader in online instructional design and course delivery.
• Earnings options such as certificates of completion, microcredentials and, in some cases, academic credit.
• Content created and curated by one of the top-ranked colleges of education the U.S.

Gina Wilt, director of professional learning at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, said, “the ASU Professional Educator Learning Hub is designed to meet three big needs in the education workforce.

"First, we want to create accessible and personalized paths for more educators to specialize and advance in the profession. Second, we’d like to provide educators with more ways to develop and deepen the knowledge and skills they need to deliver effective personalized learning to all their students. Third, we want to inspire education leaders to mobilize teams and make decisions that promote learning environments that benefit all learners and educators.”

ASU built the pricing model and course offerings to be flexible. Wilt’s professional learning team at Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College works with school system chief learning officers and human resource leads to construct subscription-style packages of courses that make sense for a given school or school system.

“One district might have a pressing need to build teams of teachers who can excel in blended and online learning environments,” Wilt said. “Another district might need to provide professional learning that helps staff work with an influx of learners born in other countries. We’ll work to custom build packages for school systems, and we also know that the conversations we have with school leaders will inform the courses we develop in the future.”

Wilt says that Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and Learning Enterprise at ASU will seek to develop courses that leverage the subject-matter knowledge of experts throughout the university in ways that are relevant to educators. Additionally, Wilt’s team is working with strategic partners such as Youth Service America to develop courses that serve educators already working with those organizations.

The Professional Educator Learning Hub fits into ASU’s broad commitment to support the education workforce. That commitment includes the Next Education Workforce initiative, which currently works with schools in 15 states to develop staffing models that work better for both educators and their students. 

Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College is working with school systems to develop teacher-preparation programs that are more accessible to working adults and to develop both degree and non-degree programs that help school systems develop and retain leaders.

“A robust, distinctively ASU approach to professional learning,” said Basile, “is an integral part of that work. We already play a major role in initial teacher certification through our degree programs and certification-only programs. We have long and strong relationships with schools across the country in which our students conduct internships and professional experiences. 

"The Professional Educator Learning Hub reflects our commitment to supporting the education workforce not only in teacher preparation but also in all the years that follow.”