The first of its kind, the NEON Citizen Science Academy Online is intended to be a complete professional development resource for educators and will include online courses, modules, tutorials, and a virtual community of practice. Our initial efforts have focused on professional development courses for formal and informal educators. As of Winter 2014, we have five courses available to educators with more in development.
NEON Citizen Science Academy Online courses are 30-day, graded, self-paced, and semi-facilitated with 5 – 7 stand-alone units that have stated learning objectives, background content, readings, discussion forums, classroom learning activities, assignments, and self-assessments. They are offered using the Moodle course management system.
Through a collaboration with the Colorado School of Mines Teacher Enhancement Program, optional graduate level Continuing Education credits are available. There is a $35.00 registration fee for each online course.
In addition to online courses, we are developing online resources for educators to use for their own learning or in their teaching. The resources will include a combination of videos, tutorials, and downloadable instructional materials.