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Planning your professional development
written by JJ Cloutier,
edited by Debra Sinkarsin
The perfect time to plan your professional development (PD) is after you wrap up your session or semester. Reflect, plan for the next year – then rest.
PD planning for sessional instructors is just as critical as it is for all other instructors but usually it’s a solo activity without guidance from deans or department heads.
Regardless of your position, we have a quick overview of PD planning and some low-cost options for PD events to help get you started.
Quick overview of PD planning process
- Reflect on your term or year. Read our blog post Reflection is about careful thought to learn about the reflection process.
- Define and record areas of strengths, weaknesses and interests. These areas could include:
- Instructional strategies knowledge
- Subject matter content knowledge
- Learning technology knowledge
- Self-care practices or knowledge
- Prioritize and set goals based on your reflections.
- Prioritize your areas for improvement and strength. Decide what areas will have the greatest impact on your student’s success and your personal and professional growth.
- Set a few goals. A goal could use one of your strengths more or it could improve upon a weakness.
- Look for PD activities which will help you meet your goals including webinars, courses, and books.
- Review your teaching and learning centre’s resources, and upcoming events. They will have workshops, webinars or resource (support) pages to help you.
- Check out MB Hub website Events page for upcoming PD events or read a resource page on instructional strategy or learning technology.
- Connect with your teaching and learning centre or MB Hub for topics you cannot find PD support for. Either the teaching and learning centre or MB Hub may have plans for events or resources to meet your needs.
- Connect with your institution’s subject matter librarians. They should be able to direct you to resources or learning events hosted by the library staff.
- Look at the listings of Other places to find PD supports to potentially find more opportunities.
- Build a plan, include deadlines and dates. Put checkpoints in your calendar and review your personal PD progress.
Other places to consider for PD supports
- Quality Matters (As MB Hub partners your memberships are free, giving you access to free and reduced rates on PD events and courses)
- Educause (Many partners are member giving access free or reduced rates on PD events and courses)
- Online Learning Consortium (OLC)
- Faculty Development Community Portal (merlot.org)
- Faculty Courses – Magna Publications (magnapubs.com) (Check if your institution has access for Magna to get reduced rate or more access to Magna resources)
- TeachOnline from Contact North | Contact Nord with webinars and upcoming conference listings
- Facilitating Learning Online from BCcampus with webinars, micro-courses and labs.
- CHERD webinars free one-hour professional development webinars (Centre for Higher Education Research and Development at the University of Manitoba)
- The Edith Lando Virtual Learning Centre -Workshops & Events from UBC
- MYfest from EquityUnbound