GDSE/RES: Women's Science Equity Online

TERC建议研究教师在线科学课程的特点，这些特点与女性的积极学习成果有关。现在有数百门面向教师的在线科学课程，但很少有关于在线课程的综合研究或元分析。与此同时，女性教师是在线教育的最大用户，目前还没有针对在线科学专业发展课程中女性学习者的大规模研究。该项目的第一阶段是对100门面向教师的在线科学课程进行描述性调查和分析。第二阶段将通过对课程特点的分析，选出20门课程的子集进行深入考察。最后，该团队将为在线课程开发人员制定一套指导方针，其中包括关于与国家专业发展标准保持一致、互动性和可访问性等问题的一般建议，以及课程中的示例和小插曲。自20世纪80年代以来，TERC一直是电信支持学习研究和开发的领导者。项目工作人员和咨询委员会由经验丰富的在线开发人员、科学教育工作者、教师专业发展专家以及在多样性和性别问题方面具有丰富经验的教育研究人员组成。有兴趣参与的课程提供者包括国家教师提升网络（NTEN）、北卡罗来纳大学和美国自然历史博物馆。潜在地，这项研究将为那些目前正在投资于科学教师在线专业发展的组织提供信息，这些组织几乎没有从研究基础中获益。提高教师的科学技能——目前主要是女性教师——间接地改善了面向所有学生的科学教育，并建立了国家教育能力。TERC的研究将通过确定在线学习中对女性学习者特别有效的最佳实践（建议的课程结构、格式和便利要素）和设计因素，促进教师获得更高质量的学习体验。

TERC proposes to study the characteristics of online science courses for teachers that correlate to positive learning outcomes for women. There are now hundreds of science courses offered online for teachers, yet there are very few aggregate studies or meta-analyses of online courses. At the same time, women teachers are the largest users of online education, and there are no large-scale research studies focusing on women learners in online professional development courses in science.The first phase of the project is a descriptive survey and analysis of 100 online science courses for teachers. The second phase will use the analysis of course characteristics to select a subset of 20 courses for in-depth examination. Finally, the team will develop a set of guidelines for online course developers that include general recommendations on issues of alignment to national professional development standards, interactivity, and accessibility, along with examples and vignettes from courses.TERC has been a leader in research and development of telecommunication-supported learning since the 1980's. The project staff and the advisory committee comprises highly experienced online developers, science educators, teacher professional development experts, and educational researchers with experience in diversity and gender issues.Among the course providers interested in participating are the National Teacher Enhancement Network (NTEN), University of North Carolina, and the American Museum of Natural History. Potentially, the research will inform organizations who are currently investing in online professional development for science teachers with little benefit of research underpinnings. Improving the science skills of teachers - mostly women at this time - indirectly improves science education for all students and builds national capacity in education. TERC's research will promote higher quality learning experiences for teachers by identifying best practices (suggested elements of program structure, format, and facilitation) and design factors in online learning that are particularly effective for women as learners.