How to create a course catalog system for professional development

A course catalog system for professional development is a critical tool for schools to offer ongoing training and learning opportunities to all school stakeholders. 

A well-designed course catalog can help teachers to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in their field, acquire new skills, and advance their careers. 

Here are some steps to help you create a course catalog system for professional development: 

Step 1: Define Your Goals and Objectives Before you begin creating your course catalog, you should define your goals and objectives for the professional development program. What are the key skills or competencies you want your educators to learn? What are the long-term goals of the program, and how will you measure its success? Answering these questions will help you to design a catalog that aligns with your school's objectives and meets the needs of all your school’s stakeholders. 

Step 2: Identify Your Target Audience Next, you need to identify your target audience. Who are the teachers who will benefit from the professional development program? What are their job roles and responsibilities? What are their skill levels and learning preferences? Understanding your audience will help you to design courses that are relevant and engaging. 

Step 3: Define Your Course Catalog Structure The structure of your course catalog will depend on the goals and objectives of your professional development program. You may want to organise courses by topic area, skill level, or job role. You should also consider whether you want to offer courses in a specific format, such as instructor-led courses, self-paced courses, or webinars. 

Step 4: Develop Course Content Once you have defined your course catalog structure, it's time to develop course content. You can create courses in-house or partner with external training providers. You should ensure that the course content aligns with your schools goals and objectives and meets the needs of your target audience. The content should be engaging, interactive, and relevant to the learner's job responsibilities. 

Step 5: Create Your Course Catalog After developing your courses, you can now create your course catalog. Your catalog should include course titles, descriptions, learning objectives, target audience, course format, duration, and any prerequisites. You should also include information on the course instructor, certification, and assessment. 

Step 6: Promote Your Course Catalog Once you have created your course catalog, it's time to promote it to teachers. You can use a variety of channels, such as email, company intranet, and social media, to communicate the benefits of your professional development program and promote your course catalog. 

Step 7: Evaluate and Update Your Course Catalog You should regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your professional development program and update your course catalog as needed. Collect feedback from employees and measure the impact of your courses on their job performance. Use this feedback to make improvements to your program and update your course catalog with new courses and content. 

Creating a course catalog system for professional development may seem daunting, but with the right planning and resources, it can be a valuable tool for your school. By following these steps, you can create a comprehensive and effective course catalog that supports the ongoing learning and development of your employees. 

One way to simplify the process of creating a course catalog for professional development is to use a learning management system (LMS) like Canvas Catalog from the Canvas LMS family, a product of Instructure Learning Platform. Canvas Catalog is an intuitive and user-friendly platform that allows you to create and publish your course catalog, manage registrations, and track learner progress. With Canvas Catalog, you can also customise your course offerings, generate reports, offer personalised learning experiences for your employees, and streamline professional development. 

Market your course catalog with Canvas Catalog 

Creating a course catalog system may seem like a daunting task, but it can be a straightforward process with Canvas Catalog. Its cutting-edge course catalog system and branded marketplace helps streamline and scale educator professional development both at the state and school level. With Canvas Catalog you can market all of your school’s professional development and community resource offerings. 

What does Canvas Catalog offer? 

Simplified Registration 

Professional development registration systems that easily and equitably offer professional development are hard to come by. 

Canvas Catalog, however, is the comprehensive solution that can easily get your stakeholders into their professional development courses, allow you to build a school-branded professional development storefront, and scale your educator education program. With Canvas Catalog, school leaders can offer any Canvas course available and educators can easily find and register for the courses they need to further their learning. 

Easy process to build, manage, and customise course offerings 

Managing PD registration and teacher certification is a heavy lift for school administrators. Canvas Catalog, however, eases this burden. Administrators can easily build, manage, and customise Canvas Catalog course offerings and pages as well as programs and clusters of courses needed for certification and course indexing. Canvas Catalog also reduces administrative burden through automated adding and enrolling of participants, collecting payments, and certificates of completion. 

Customisable Reports 

Administrators can keep an eye on the health of their professional development by generating high-level, customisable reports to view progress, overall registration of programs and courses, revenue and enrollment trends, and easily export reports with one click. 

Personalised Professional Development 

Professional development has to be tailored for the unique needs of all your school’s stakeholders. Canvas Catalog is designed to meet these unique needs. 

From the community to parents, to admin registering teachers, to teachers self-registering, to offerings within your institution, to offerings to people outside your institution-- the options for course registration in Canvas Catalog are built to meet the needs of everyone involved. 

Not everyone needs the same PD. Catalog makes it easy for all the different stakeholders to participate in PD that is relevant to them. Self-registration and self-paced courses make it so that adult learning is meaningful, too. 

Creating a course catalog system for a school school is a critical task that requires careful planning and organisation. Learn more about Canvas Catalog and create a comprehensive and user-friendly course catalog that will benefit everyone in your community. 

Learn more about tools for modern classrooms and all the solutions available for your school by downloading our free ebook “The Pillars of Today’s K-12 Classroom” or Contact us directly.