AVID Open Access for Professional Learning

The second major type of resource that you’ll find at AVID Open Access is a catalog of searchable articles. These articles address topics in education that are important to both classroom teachers and school leaders. Content is broken up into six areas: Teaching in a Tech-Empowered Classroom, Strategies to Empower Students, Community and Connectedness, Digital Tools and Templates, Digital Study and Life Skills, and Digital Citizenship and Media Literacy.

Within these sections, you’ll find articles with actionable teaching strategies, tips for both digital and offline tools that you can use, and even templates and graphic organizers that you can grab for free and use right away in your classroom. While you can conveniently search the site for topics that are important to you, you can also find articles by skimming the six different section categories or by browsing topic collections containing articles and resources conveniently grouped together for quick access.

In this section of the AOA website, you’ll find ready-to-use lessons made available across five categories: Critical Reading, Coding and Robotics, Cardboard Engineering, Exploration, and Invention. Many of these lessons have been designed in collaboration with esteemed education partners, such as YES, Code.org, Carolina, AIAA, and more. Typical lessons include learning objectives, materials, and three sections for interaction and engagement: Explore, Reflect, and Extend Beyond.

In this section, you can explore resources and opportunities provided in collaboration with AOA’s education program partners: Code.org and Microsoft Philanthropies. These resources primarily focus on the areas of STEM and computer science.

This last resource is a bookmark and curation tool built into the AOA website. By creating a free account, you can log in, bookmark your favorite AOA resources, and then save them into shareable playlists.

You can create playlists around as many topics as you’d like. Then, you can give the shareable link to your colleagues or use it yourself. When you click on the link, you will be guided, one resource at a time, through the items on the list you’ve created. You can use the Journeys feature to curate customized learning pathways. To access Journeys, click on the person icon in the top-right corner of the AOA website.

A playlist is a list of resources that a learner can work through at their own pace. Ideally, the lists are differentiated and allow for choice. The Journeys feature on AOA works great for this since you can build the playlist with AOA content and then easily share the Journey link with others.

Rather than building the playlists yourself, you might consider having learners set up their own accounts to build their own custom playlists. They could focus on topics that you specify or focus areas that they self-identify as priorities. Having learners create their own playlists gives them increased ownership and voice and choice in the process.

Another way to integrate AOA into a blended learning strategy is to set up stations using AOA content. In this model, learners would rotate through a series of stations during some type of staff professional learning experience.

If you go this route, you could once again provide journey links for each station, or you could provide access through a staff learning management system (LMS) or website. If you don’t have access to an LMS, you can use QR codes and shortened URLs at each station to direct learners to the relevant resources. These codes can be printed on a sheet of paper and left on the station tables for teachers to access. On the other hand, if you do have access to an LMS for teachers, you can conveniently use that as your home base for links and resources.

As you design stations, strive to offer a variety of learning experiences. It’s best if there is a mix of online and offline activities as well as individual and collaborative experiences. Since you’ve brought your staff together in the same physical space, take advantage of this excellent opportunity for them to share and collaborate in person.

Once again, you can use the Journeys feature to curate related and relevant content. This time, you can gather the lists to share with PLC groups. Even better, you can have the PLCs develop their own custom journeys.

If you want to extend beyond the resources on AOA, you can post links in your LMS, on a staff web portal, or on a shared document. This allows you to mix in links from the journeys with individual links to specific AOA content as well as links to other documents, websites, and resources. PLC teams can then work through these resources with actionable outcomes.

Virtual professional development can be offered through self-paced courses hosted in an LMS. By using an LMS, you can design a sequence of links, resources, and learning activities for teachers to work through. The AOA resources are easily linkable, so you can mix in articles and podcasts as desired.

Ideally, these experiences allow for choice and interaction with other educators. Because these courses are housed virtually, they can be used to facilitate on-demand learning programs.

The AOA resources also work well for teachers developing their own personalized individual growth plan. Teachers can create journeys and then share those links as needed with whomever is facilitating the growth plan process. Some districts even offer lane-change credit or stipends as compensation for this type of professional learning.