Is face-to-face or online professional development better?

A new article in the Journal of Teacher Education compares the impact of delivering professional development (PD) face-to-face and online. The authors conducted a cluster randomized experiment on a PD program designed to prepare high school teachers to implement a year-long environmental science curriculum. A total of 49 teachers were randomly assigned to either the face-to-face condition (a week-long workshop totaling 48 hours) or the online condition (to be completed by teachers at their own pace). 

Comparison of classroom practice and student learning outcomes is normally difficult to establish in PD research, but using a common set of curriculum materials enabled the authors to do so in this case. Their analysis found that both teachers and students (n=1,132) exhibited significant gains in both conditions, face-to-face and online, but that there was no significant difference between the conditions. 

Johns Hopkins University 

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