As a teacher, endeavor to take CPD courses as they can help equip you with professional skills and knowledge to take your teaching practice to the next level. I have curated a list of 13 free online CPD for teachers to enroll in. By taking these CPD courses, you won’t have to worry about costs or not having enough time to study.
Teachers enroll in CPD programs all the time to improve their skills and acquire more knowledge that will help them to better nurture the future generation. The CPD programs may be an online or in-person course, teacher’s seminar or conference, workshops, or getting a college degree. Partaking in these programs helps them become more professional in their practice.
We all know that the is constantly evolving and new trends pop up nearly every day, to stay relevant, it is important to keep learning new things and following up with the latest trends so that you do not get left behind, this is exactly how CPD programs functions. By equipping teachers with the latest teaching practices, techniques, skills, and knowledge they can be able to better teach the younger generations and keep them up to date with the latest trends in society and set them on the right path.
As for the teachers who partake in CPD programs, they too will not fall out of the moving train and can move on to the next level in their career. A CPD program can be free or paid depending on the organizers but in most cases, they are paid but then, the school or district supports teachers to go ahead and take the training while the school or district covers the cost and other expenses.
I already listed out the activities that count as Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers but this blog post concentrates on the ones offered online that teachers can take for free which are mainly in the form of an online course. The benefit of these free online CPD for teachers is that teachers won’t have to keep waiting for financial support from their school or district before they can take the online CPD courses.
Since they are free, they can go on ahead and take the courses without a dime in their pocket. Another benefit that the free online CPD for teachers offers is that teachers can now make out time to take the courses and this is because online courses are self-paced and offer flexibility to the learners. This means that you can start and complete an online CPD course at your own time and it can easily fit into your schedule.
You certainly do not have to give up on teaching just to take an online CPD course for teachers. You can combine both and achieve excellent results because it gives you room to test run or practicalize what you are learning right in the classroom where you teach.
Now, let’s get on with the main topic and see the online CPD courses you can take for free as a teacher.
Free Online CPD Courses For Teachers
The following are online Continuous Professional Development courses that teachers can take online:
- Safeguarding in Education
- How Learning Takes Place
- Take Your Teaching Online
- Literacy in Science
- Diversity & Inclusion in the Classroom
- Assessment for Learning – 10 Steps to Mastery
- Professional Relationships with Young People
- The Online Educator: People and Pedagogy
- Accessibility of eLearning
- Introduction to Cybersecurity for Teachers
- Understanding Computer Systems
- Supporting Successful Learning in Secondary School
- An Introduction to Teaching in England
1. Safeguarding in Education
Here in this course, teachers will develop a third eye especially for their students to spot warning signs in victims of abuse and alert the relevant authorities. Aside from imparting knowledge to children via teaching, it is also important for teachers to get a unique insight into how children are developing, behaving, and interacting with each other. The duration for this course is 1 hour, you can start and complete it on your own time.
2. How Learning Takes Place
This is a free online CPD course perfect for assistant teachers and those about to become teachers. It is an introductory course that will expose you to the appropriate tools that can aid students’ learning in the classroom. It takes only 1 hour to complete the course but you can start and complete it on your schedule.
3. Take Your Teaching Online
There was a massive adoption of online education when the Corona Virus pandemic hit the world. Teaching and learning had to go online and even after the pandemic, many schools have integrated online education into their learning system. This is a new change and as a teacher, you have to learn the latest practices and effective techniques to be able to teach online.
This course right here, Take Your Teaching Online, is a free online CPD program that introduces teachers to online education and learning about principles of effective, inclusive, and accessible online education. This CPD is offered for free by OpenLearn.
4. Literacy in Science
There are many big words in science, if children can learn what those words mean and how to pronounce them, learning sciences like biology can become easier for them. Literacy in Science is an ideal course for science teachers of all experience levels to enroll in and learn how to better teach their students the languages and vocabularies in science in the most effective way.
5. Diversity & Inclusion in the Classroom
Diversity & Inclusion in the Classroom is a free online CPD course for teachers offered by Rahoo. The course equips teachers with knowledge on how to create an inclusive classroom that celebrates and represents diversity and gives teachers a better understanding of how to work effectively with students from diverse backgrounds. The course is divided into 5 sections and takes 2 and a half hours to complete.
6. Assessment for Learning – 10 Steps to Mastery
This is a 20 minutes free online CPD course for teachers that equips them with a clearer understanding of assessment learning and ways to use it. The course shares 10 high-impact strategies to help teachers gain confidence and competence in formative assessment.
7. Professional Relationships with Young People
Teachers are meant to develop professional relationships with their students to enable effective student-teacher interaction which makes learning much more fun and engaging. This course explores various approaches to developing relationships and working practices that can inform work with young people. Through these approaches, teachers will develop invaluable skills to build a professional, yet professional relationship with young people.
8. The Online Educator: People and Pedagogy
This is one of the free online CPD courses for teachers provided by The Open University and offered on Future Learn. The course equips intermediate-level teachers on how to develop engaging courses for classroom teaching, make teaching more inclusive, and navigate online research ethics. The course duration is 4 weeks and you get to earn a digital certificate upon completion.
9. Accessibility of eLearning
Accessibility of eLearning is an online course that explores the needs of a diverse population of students. It further covers the tech and techniques used by disabled students. Teachers who enroll in this course will have an understanding of the types of technology used by disabled students and also consider appropriate ways to evaluate the accessibility and usability of your eLearning materials.
10. Introduction to Cybersecurity for Teachers
Cybersecurity is one of the in-demand tech fields in today’s world and will be in demand even in the future. So it won’t be a totally bad idea to teach young ones about the niche and this course can help you as a teacher to get started on the key concepts of cybersecurity that you can then teach to high school kids aged 14 to 16.
11. Understanding Computer Systems
The world is ruled by computers and high school kids should begin interacting with the system from an early age so that in the future they won’t find it difficult to learn how to use computer systems. It is only a teacher skilled in this field that can teach kids about computer systems and if you are not, you can take this course to gain an understanding of computer systems and then impart the knowledge to your students.
12. Supporting Successful Learning in Secondary School
If you are a secondary school teacher or on your way to becoming one, here is a course that you need to make teaching and learning fun and engaging for the bigger kids you will find in secondary schools. The course dives deep into different effective learning practices that teachers can utilize to create a fun and engaging atmosphere.
13. An Introduction to Teaching in England
The title of this course is already self-explanatory, I suppose. It is a 45 minutes CPD course designed for teachers from overseas who want to come to England to teach. The course covers an overview of the English school system, the curriculum, and typical approaches to lesson structure and delivery.
Conclusion
To recap, CPD stands for Continuous Professional Development, it is a type of learning program aimed at equipping professionals with the latest knowledge and skills in their field of interest, in this case, teaching. So, teachers who take CPD programs gain knowledge in up-to-date teaching practices to beef up their skills.
What are CPD courses?
Continuous Professional Development (CPD) courses are courses that develop and improve your professional practice and yourself as well.
Are CPD courses free?
CPD courses may be free or paid depending on the platform offering them. There are a host of free online CPD courses you can take and complete on your own time.
Do employers recognize CPD?
Yes, employers recognize CPD and this can give you a higher position in the workplace, earn you a promotion or higher pay, and set you apart from the crowd.
How many hours of CPD do teachers need?
Teachers need a minimum of 36 CPD hours per 3 years.
How do teachers earn CPD points?
Teachers earn CPD points for every hour of active learning, that is, for one hour of CPD activity, they earn one CPD point.