There may be a number of reasons you are searching for DIY professional development. You might work in a sector with limited access to learning and training around digital skills, or you might be looking for freely available courses for your teaching staff so you can improve quality of delivery across the organisation.
Wales
In Wales, practitioners are expected to meet digital skills standards across further education, work based and adult community learning. Here are the standards that were developed by the sectors in partnership with Welsh Government and Jisc. Training is not always instantly available, so here are some resources you might find useful.
England
In England, practitioners also have digital skills standards to meet and the Education Training Foundation support practitioners with various resources. Much of the focus is on teachers of Essential Digital Skills, and Digital Functional Skills. There is a self assessment tool, and lots of free CPD modules to support.
Jisc
Jisc deliver various training workshops and courses, some of which are free and some are paid for. This is the whole list, and it includes ‘Yawn to Yay’ a free taster workshop for practitioners who are delivering live online classes or webinars. We deliver one per month, so book on!
There are also freely available resources like the pedagogy toolkit and the employability toolkit, not to mention a number of other guides which bring together knowledge and experiences from across the UK.
OpenLearn
‘Take your teaching online’ is a popular free course from the Open University that many practitioners have undertaken during the pandemic.
FutureLearn
FutureLearn online courses are often free and good quality. They have been around for a few years, and were developed before the pandemic, but the teaching and learning is sound and the delivery is engaging.
Some are aimed at specific sectors like this one for apprenticeships, and others are more generic, and there is often a focus on vocational education and training. This suite of courses is a good introduction to blended learning tools and techniques, although it is a paid for service.
More free stuff
Google produce a range of learning and development resources for practitioners. Microsoft also publish a range of guidance for teachers, and this page for educators will get you started.
What are your favourite DIY courses or resources? Let us know in the comments.