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The Fulcrum Institute for Leadership in Science Education includes three credit-bearing online courses that help teachers to further their own science knowledge, understand how teachers, children and scientists develop scientific ideas, and develop leadership in teaching science. Science inquiry is at the heart of the Institute.

Much of the institute’s coursework takes place online. If you haven’t taken an online course before, you may be asking: What does this look like? How does it work? Could I be successful learning online?

Our online courses take place within Blackboard, an online learning environment. We chose this environment because it is easy to use.

The Institute may have 20 or more participants, but we divide the class into study groups of 5-7 people so that those participating can collaborate and discuss their investigations and other coursework in depth.

Before beginning a course, participants receive a kit in the mail that includes investigation materials. In general investigations can be done with simple household objects and the materials included in the kit.

It is expected that Fulcrum Institute participants spend 6-9 hours on weekly assignments as this is a Tufts graduate course. Through threaded discussions teachers post their data, findings, and ideas, and comment on the findings of their colleagues.

Most people prefer to do their assignments in the evenings or over the weekend. For this reason, weekly sessions begin on Friday. Each Friday, participants log in to see what is in store for them. They are encouraged to print out the session so that they can conduct their investigations and other work offline and away from the computer. (People often report that they do the investigations with their family.)

By the middle of the week, participants post a message to their study group in an online forum. They report the results of their work and pose questions. They then read their colleagues’ posts and compare notes. This results in lively online conversation to resolve dilemmas and questions.

Course facilitators—a scientist and science educator—are there to support the group’s discussion and learning. And, a technology expert is on hand if technical problems are encountered.

Each week involves lots of journaling and reflection. Many sessions make use of multimedia, such as online video and PowerPoint. Work with online tools is interactive. For example, participants may analyze video of children engaged in science or represent their findings from an investigation in graphs or diagrams that they share with each other as PowerPoint attachments.

We hear that online learning works for teachers because they can schedule their coursework to fit with their very full lives. They report that they feel supported in their learning, get to know their online colleagues well, and learn more than they would in face-to-face classes because they have time to think. We’re confident this way of learning would work for you.

For a closer look at online learning see Science Investigations, Data Analysis, Children's Inquiry, and Online Discussions, linked from the navigation bar to the left.