Implementing Online Professional Learning Communities: Insights from WestEd's Blended Professional Development Model

Online professional development offers a number of potential advantages for teacher learning. Teachers in different locations can meet without having to travel—reducing costs, increasing convenience, and supporting community building among participants. But little guidance exists on how to integrate online and in-person professional development so that the two become mutually reinforcing. This brief describes insights from WestEd’s Reading Apprenticeship Across the Disciplines program that blends online and in-person professional development to support teachers in a variety of subject areas as they work to build students’ literacy skills.