How to choose great online teacher CPD

The amount of resources available to educators on the internet is incredible. Research, tips, strategies and networks are now easier to find than ever for passionate teachers. This is also creating great opportunities for new ways to receive CPD training - whether you’re based in a different area to the provider you had in mind, having to do distance learning to stay safe, or simply looking to save on your CPD budget.

However, this also means tougher choices. With both money and time becoming increasingly sparse resources in schools, it’s important to select the course and provider carefully. You don’t want to pay a fortune for a course that turns out to be completely irrelevant.

So, what does good teacher CPD look like? We believe it needs to be:
  • Evidence-based - Teaching and learning are too important to base classroom strategies on guesses.
  • Practical - Despite the amount of fascinating research out there, you need strategies that you can apply within your school.
  • Good value - A great CPD session should provide good value for money.
  • Enjoyable - Not just chalk and talk. Why waste your precious time on another boring presentation?

Evidence-based Online Teacher CPD

This one is particularly close to our hearts. We believe that research has the power to change lives for the better, especially in schools. That is why over the last 14 years, we have been dedicated to making research accessible to educators in the form of hundreds of free resources.

This translates to our online CPD workshops as well - they are all designed by a team of psychologists using only the latest and most relevant research.

Take our Growth Mindset course, for example. Like most popular theories in education, it has been turned into so many blog posts, resources, podcasts, packs and inspirational quotes that you can easily get lost - and not know who to trust. So, we keep it strictly to the parts that matter the most to you: exactly what the research says, what Growth Mindset does for students like yours, and which strategies you can use in your school.

Practical Online Teacher CPD

We love getting lost in the research, learning about fascinating findings and coming up with ways to use it in schools. With teachers working very long hours and wearing so many hats, it’s nice to have a helping hand to translate the research findings into ways that can meaningfully shape your practice.

Good CPD gives you the strategies you need, from research that matters, and suggests ways you might apply it - nothing more. That is why we focus our online modules on practical strategies and adapt our content to the needs of the schools we work with.

We think a great example is our Using Retrieval Practice module. Believe us, there is a ton of research on the subject, and we still have much to learn. We can explain the theory in a way that makes sense to you, and provide you with as many ways to put this into action as we can. And that’s exactly what we do.

Good Value Online Teacher CPD

Schools are asked to do more and more with shrinking budgets. They can’t afford to pay for one-size-fits-all, overpriced CPD that may or may not help them in the end. So, what does valuable CPD pricing look like?
  • Adapted to your needs - Why should you have to pay the same price when you need 15 places on an online module as a school who needs 150? This is why we use flexible pricing that fits the needs of schools of any size and even individual teachers.
  • Reasonable - CPD is vital to make teaching effective and shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg. With prices starting at only £9 per learner, we aim to make great online teacher CPD accessible to all budgets.
  • Transparent - You can spend hours reading the course summaries, looking for testimonials and researching CPD providers to make sure you’re spending your budget smartly. Or, you could simply try the module you’re interested in. At the InnerDrive Online Academy, we’re always happy to provide a free place on the module you have in mind for your school, so you know exactly what you get. All you have to do is ask.

Enjoyable Online Teacher CPD

You have probably sat through countless boring presentations, snooze-worthy webinars and one-sided lectures. Online CPD can be especially guilty of this. We could simply point the camera at ourselves and recite the content of our slides.
But how could we possibly teach you about topics such as motivation by boring you to death? Teaching is exciting, research can be captivating, and online tools allow for more interactivity than ever. Why wouldn’t we take advantage of this?

That’s why we pack our courses full of practical experiments, short quizzes, further reading, opportunities for self-reflection, and even tools to exchange with fellow educators taking the same module as you are. Plus, there’s cake. Yep, online cake.
For online teacher CPD that meets all the criteria, check out our courses on the InnerDrive Online Academy. We’re always happy to chat, too - so, if you would like to find out more or need help choosing the right course for your school, please get in touch.