Arkansas Tech University has been notified by the Arkansas Department of Education that it has received grant funding to offer the ATU Online Teaching Academy for a third consecutive year.
The $400,000 grant for the 2023-24 academic year will allow ATU to provide 15 hours of graduate course credit to 50 public school teachers seeking to improve their skills in delivering online curriculum.
Due to scholarship funding provided by the Arkansas Department of Education grant, program participants will have the opportunity to earn all 15 hours of graduate course credit available through the ATU Online Teaching Academy at no cost. Courses and meetings will take place in synchronous, asynchronous and virtual reality sessions. There will be no face-to-face sessions, but some sessions will occur at prescribed times.
Applications for the 2023-24 ATU Online Teaching Academy will be open Monday, April 10, through Tuesday, April 18, at https://educatorpreparation.wufoo.com/forms/dese-online-teacher-interest-form.
Participants who choose ATU as their learning site will be asked to also complete the ATU Graduate College application. Once admitted to the academy and ATU, participants will be required to complete a letter of commitment promising to complete the full program and take the online teaching test requirement in spring 2024.
Dr. Theresa Cullen, professor and head of the ATU Department of Teaching and Educational Leadership, serves as program director for the ATU Online Teaching Academy.
“Great educators are lifelong learners,” said Cullen. “This is a great opportunity to grow personally in your skill and teaching techniques. I hope teachers that enroll are doing it as much for their own growth and fulfillment as earning a teaching endorsement. Our coursework will focus on what technology is available now and how they can be technology leaders into the future.”
Individuals who complete the ATU Online Teaching Academy earn a certificate in online teaching. ATU Online Teaching Academy completers are also eligible to stack their earned 15 hours toward the 30-hour ATU Master of Education degree in instructional technology or other degrees at Arkansas Tech.
“This year marks the end of this grant cycle,” said Cullen, “so for anyone who has been thinking about pursuing this opportunity, the time to apply is now.”
Curriculum design and evaluation, advanced curriculum design for online learning, online multimedia course development, instructional technology and emerging technologies for education and training are among the topics that are covered during the ATU Online Teaching Academy. Courses will use a variety of tools for student projects and tools to learn how to teach synchronously, asynchronously and even using emerging technologies like virtual reality and publishing open books.
“Teachers who graduated in the first cohort of the ATU Online Teaching Academy have gone on to use tools they learned in their own classrooms, move into online teaching roles and train their colleagues in new technologies,” said Cullen.
The 2023-24 program will begin with a synchronous orientation in June with several dates to choose from. The summer academy portion of the program runs from July 3-Aug. 2, 2023, during which six hours of coursework will be completed through hybrid online delivery with some synchronous sessions.
The program will continue with six hours of asynchronous coursework during fall 2023 and three hours of asynchronous coursework during spring 2024. Synchronous student support sessions will be offered each third Saturday.
Each program participant will take an online assessment during spring 2024 to be able to earn their Arkansas Online Teaching Endorsement for the next academic year.
A flyer with full details, including summer synchronous dates, is available at https://bit.ly/atuota23.
For more information, send e-mail to tcullen@atu.edu or call (479) 880-4401.
