Free online teacher professional development with certificates

Updated January 6, 2021

Right now an unprecedented situation has griped the country. Teachers are forced to teach online amongst school closures. Budgets everywhere are strained and conferences have likely been cancelled. While seminars and in-person courses are the normal ways for educators to gain professional development, there are tons of alternative online opportunities — and many are free! Here are some stay-at-home professional learning resources that you can check out in your pajamas or in your backyard.

Apple Teacher Program
Apple Teacher is a free professional learning program designed to support and celebrate educators using Apple products for teaching and learning. Learn to “engage students ages 5-18, manage your classroom, and create learning experiences using iPads.”

ASCD’s Free Webinar Series
With a constant stream of new and free content, ASCD free webinars are also archived so you can get your professional development on demand.

ASCD’s Online Professional Development Courses
Choose from over 80 courses on relevant topics facing educators today, and take advantage of a free trial course. After the trial, pay $155 per course.

Education Closet’s Free Online STEAM Workshops
Education Closet is offering free workshops: Each month, view a new 15-20 minute workshop designed for educators and filled with ideas you can take back to the classroom.

ED Week’s Webinars
Ed Week offers both free and paid webinars for educators on a wide range of education topics. Participation certificates are not provided, but live viewers receive a post-event confirmation email.

Free EdWeb Webinars
EdWeb was founded 10 years ago as a free professional learning network that hosts online professional learning communities and engaging edWebinars for educators – anytime, anywhere. They provide a CE Certificate as evidence of participation when you attend a live EdWebinar or view a webinar recording.

Free PBS Media Literacy Courses
KQED Teach offers a collection of free, hands-on, professional learning opportunities focused on digital media. Educators can build skills in digital storytelling, data visualization, and critical media use to support all curriculum areas.

Landmark Outreach’s Online Courses
Landmark Outreach offers 15-hour courses and 3-credit courses on a variety of instructional topics, with more courses continually in development. Register for one of these courses to increase your knowledge and earn PD hours.

NASA’s STEM Professional Development Webinars for Educators
The NASA EPDC is offering free science-based webinars for educators this summer. Examples include: “Engineering Design Challenges for Elementary Educators,” “Math in Search for Life Beyond Earth,” and “Explore Flight: Let’s Go Fly a Kite.”

PBS TeacherLine Professional Development Courses
These online professional development courses range from $250-$400 and cover subjects such as instructional technology, leadership, math, language arts, science, and social studies.

20 (FREE) Online Courses for Teachers
Collection of the top 20 FREE online courses that will help you master the art of teaching online classes. Think of them as a crash course on how to become an online teacher that students rave about – a teacher who’s so interesting that they don’t even think about checking their phones until you say your goodbyes for the day.

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Tags: Educational Technology, Leadership and Administration, Literacy, Mid-Career Teacher, New Teacher, Online Learning, Professional Development, Science, STEAM, Veteran Teacher

Living in 2021 has many benefits, and the one that helps us educators is online learning. We can learn or teach online for the comforts of our homes for free! There are plenty of free online courses and webinars for teachers now!

Professional development is a major aspect of my teaching practice. Learning about new research or interesting, innovative teaching methods empowers me to keep improving.

I am very keen on planing my professional development. I am interested in inclusion, ICT in education, environmental education, and innovative teaching methodology.

Finding and selecting free online webinars and courses for teachers

When it comes to free webinars and courses, I always choose them based on certain criteria.

1. All of them offer free certification – a certificate or a badge.
2. They are based on scientific research and offer academic references for further learning.
3. All of them are created by established universities or educational organizations.
4. The presenters must have at least a Bachelor’s degree in Education, Inclusion, Pedagogy, Psychology, or related fields.

It may seem that I am asking too much for a free course, but I don’t want to read and complete courses that are not based on scientific research. I also don’t want to complete courses that do not offer a certificate since I want to showcase my efforts in my portfolio. The education of the presenters is also crucial since that defines the quality of the presentation itself.

After completing a double master’s degree, I started expecting professional development presentations to be supported by academic research. I don’t always enjoy presentations that are based only on an educator’s experience. Almost every seminar in my country is based on personal experience, and I don’t want to attend similar conferences or webinars online.

I am not interested in earning CPD credit. My primary goal is learning and showcasing my efforts in my portfolio. If you need credits, you will have to check with every website if they offer such credits.

What are your areas of improvement?

Before starting your professional development journey, visit these links below, and identify your areas of improvement.

• Cambridge Framework Competency Standards for Teachers
• British Council Self Assessment

If you are not a native English speaker and teach English, EF offers free language test certification. The EF test is the only valid free-level test, and many organizations accept it. You can do your test HERE.

National Geographic Educator Certification is a 20-hour course with practical lessons you have to teach. You also have to submit a video reflection in a digital storytelling format. This is the best course globally, and I will write about it in detail in another post. Mentors moderate the course, and it is open twice a year. National Geographic also offers three additional courses other than this certification.

National Geographic – 5 free online courses

They recently opened two more new courses, so now they have six moderated online courses. All the courses offer outstanding content, an amazing community, free certification, and a chance to purchase university credits.

I completed the Teaching Global Climate Change in Your Classroom and Connecting the Geo-Inquiry Process to Your Teaching Practice.

I plan to complete the last 3 courses in the next 2 years.

1. Collecting Data to Explore Plastic Pollution in Our Communities
2. Mapping as a Visualization and Communication Tool in Your Classroom
3. Integrating Service with Learning Goals

Bullying Prevention and Ed-Tech Courses

Anti-bullying Alliance from the UK offers free online courses for teachers about bullying prevention. They have many videos and illustrations! The courses can be used as teacher training material at your schools as well. Truly outstanding – I enjoyed every single page.

Microsoft for Education offers brilliant free online courses for teachers related to ed-tech. They currently have mare more than 100 courses with many different topics connected to ICT in education. They also have a Skype classroom where you can collaborate with classrooms all around the world.

Open University Free Courses

OpenUniversity offers free online courses for teachers on many interesting topics. However, they are usually long, so take your time completing them. Here is a list of my favorite courses:

• Inclusive education: Knowing what we mean
• What is language?: an applied linguistic perspective
• Exploring equality and equity in education
• Literacy, social justice and inclusive practice
• The digital scholar
• The family at the centre of early learning
• Introduction to child psychology
• Early years team work and leadership
• Understanding autism
• Blended Learning
• Exploring books for children: words and pictures
• Assistive technologies and online learning
• Teaching secondary modern foreign languages
• Infants’ understanding of their social world
• Creativity, community and ICT
• Play, learning and the brain
• Building confidence in using online learning forums
• Supporting children’s development
• Exploring learning disabilities: supporting belonging

EdWeb Webinars

EdWeb offers many free webinars, and you can also watch old webinars and complete a test to get your certificate. They have webinars almost every day. Make sure to check the qualification of the presenter. Sometimes I like the topic of the webinar, but I end up skipping it. It may sound harsh, but trainers and coaches are titles anyone can give to themselves nowadays.

British Council Courses and Webinars

British Council has two free courses, and a special discount for paid courses every month. If you join the Official British Council Teacher Group, you will get a different code every month. With this code, you can purchase their featured course for just 3£. Here are the two courses which are always free:

• Understanding Child Protection
• Understanding Special Educational Needs

Canvas MOOCs

Canvas offers many MOOC courses presented by various universities. You can actively participate in discussions with other participants. Interesting educator-related courses are:

• Language of Caring, Science of Change: How to Rapidly Improve School Climate (K-12)
• Effective Group Work Strategies (K-12/HE)
• Growth Mindset: How to Help Your Child Learn, Grow, Thrive (K-12)
• Statistics in Education for Mere Mortals
• Integrating Critical Skills into Exploration of Culture in an EFL setting
• Content Based Instruction
• Teaching English to Young Learners (K-12) – moderated by Joan Khang Shin, the co-author of the methodological textbook – TEACHING ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS. Needless to say, she is one of my favorite authors.

EF Teacher Zone

Free Webinars | EF Teacher Zone

EF offers six teacher development webinars, after which you will get an EF teacher development certificate. Their free webinars take place twice a year. You need to answer the questions after the webinars to get the certificate. You will get the certificate after you watch all six webinars, not for each webinar. The topics of the webinars are:

• Games for skill building
• Apps for the classroom and self-study
• Optimizing classroom time
• Differentiation for language and special needs
• Formative assessments
• How to encourage risk-taking in the classroom

PBS Teacherline courses

PBS teacher line courses are AMAZING! They are self-paced, and you can complete them on Canvas LMS. They are very interactive and offer a lot of great content, presented visually appealing so that you can learn easily.

• Integrating Technology into Project-Based Learning
• Supporting Play with Media and Technology
• Approaches to Digital Assessment in Your Classroom
• Thinking and Making with Media in PreK-2 Classrooms
• Formative Assessment in Practice: Elementary Classrooms
• Blended Learning and Flipped Classroom 101
• K-2 Science Tips: Energy & Motion
• K-2 Science Tips: Animal Adaptations
• Science Teaching Strategies for Center-Based Preschool Educators for Certification
• Engaging with Families and Communities to Support Social-Emotional Learning
• Designing Early Childhood Classrooms for Social-Emotional Learning
• Using Shared Reading to Teach and Engage All Readers
• Challenging Behaviors in Early Childhood
• Classroom Video Production
• Digital Storytelling: Online Tools for Sharing Student Voices
• Playful Science Inquiry With Young Children

A fresh discovery with free quality courses recommended by a fellow educator!

School Education Gateway runs teacher Academy online courses. They are free, and you can learn up-to-date methodology.

Organizations which often offer free webinars and online courses for teachers, hosted by experienced and educated educators: 

• National Geographic Learning Webinars
• Oxford University Press Webinars
• Cambridge Assessment English Webinars
• MacMillan English Webinars
• British Council Webinars
• Pearson Webinars

Click on THIS link to see my digital portfolio and selection of current online professional development certifications.

What do you think about this list of free online courses and webinars for teachers? What is the most important thing for you when you search for a free online course? Share your experience in the comments or via the contact page!

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