In 2020, online learning became part and parcel of everyday life and, like many other organisations, STEM Learning has adapted to meet the needs of schools and teaching staff allowing them to continue supporting young people.
Whilst much of our face-to-face CPD has been delivered remotely, we have also seen increased engagement with our established online CPD offer. Our evaluation specialists have taken this opportunity to better understand the quality and the impact of STEM Learning’s online CPD.
The latest Online CPD Evaluation and Impact report looks at the effectiveness of our online CPD provision from the point of view of the engaged teachers. We are always keen to know what participants think of our courses so that we can update and improve the programme to support them in a continually evolving teaching environment.
Overall, the feedback shows that participants are very happy with the quality of the courses they completed, with 98% of participants rating course quality as good or very good.
Throughout the COVID pandemic we have continued to work hard to ensure that teachers, especially those who are non-specialists or are newly qualified, are able to access the CPD they need to develop their skills and subject knowledge. From looking at participant feedback, it is evident that this work has paid off:
- Non-specialist teachers expressed that the courses were highly impactful not only on themselves but also on their students and colleagues.
- Newly qualified and trainee teachers reflected that although the courses had a large impact on themselves, they were either not experienced enough to appreciate the impact the course had on their students and colleagues, or they were not in post yet.
The feedback explored in this report will be utilised to develop our Online CPD provision for the 2021/22 academic year.
Key findings from the report:
- Across the programme course quality is rated highly: 98% of participants rated the overall quality of the course as “good” or “very good”. Furthermore, 94% or more of participants would recommend the course to colleagues and agree that their understanding of the course topic has increased.
- Participants rate the impact of the course on themselves highly: 91% of participants rated the impact on themselves as “medium” or “high” immediately after the courses. These high levels of impact are sustained 6 months after the course, with 76% of participants rating the impact on themselves as “medium” or “high” in the 6 month follow-up survey.
- Participant background affects the amount of impact on students and colleagues: Whilst all participants showed impact on students and colleagues, those with more teaching experience rate the impact of the course on their colleagues and students more highly than participants with less teaching experience. Similarly, those with less academic science background rate the impact on students and colleagues as higher than those with more advanced science qualifications.
- Teaching focus does not affect the impact participants gain from the CPD: Regardless of phase taught, subject specialism or whether the participant was teaching within their specialism, all participants found the courses to be impactful on themselves (>95% medium or high), their students (>70%) and their colleagues (>70%).
- Impact on students increases in the six months post course: 80% of participants rate the impact on their students as “medium” or “high” six months after the course, an 11% point increase on the 69% of participants who rated the impact on their students as “medium” or “high” immediately post course. This increase shows that six months after completing the course, participants have had an opportunity to embed their learning into their teaching practice and continue to see an impact on their students.
Read more:
- Read the full online CPD evaluation and impact report
- Explore online CPD courses
- Read more about our impact and evaluation