Professional Development for Teachers | Online Courses

Why Choose PDI for Your Professional Development?

PDI has been offering quality professional development to K-12 teachers across the country for over 28 years. Our courses are designed to provide teachers with well-researched strategies that deliver high impact results for students. All PDI course content is written by highly qualified authors with significant knowledge and experience. Courses are taught by instructors who have a wealth of teaching experience and are approved as adjunct professors by UC San Diego, PDI’s credit-granting institution. School districts can trust the value of the professional development training their teachers receive through PDI’s online courses.

Our Standards of Excellence

We recognize that there are many PD providers for teachers to choose from. As an evaluator, it can be a time-consuming process to properly vet transcripts submitted for salary advancement. At a time when district resources are at an all-time low, we thought it might be helpful to provide a rubric to assist in the determination of what constitutes quality professional development, particularly if it is being used to gain salary advancement. Feel free to view and/or print PDI's handy Professional Development Rubric as a quick evaluation guide.

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The Role of AI in Professional Development

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how educators access and engage in professional learning. At PDI, we believe AI should enhance, not replace, the authentic human connection in PD. PDI has made a commitment as a company that we will not use AI to develop course content or teach our courses. While AI certainly has a place in education, teachers and students deserve the very best we can provide when it comes to training and professional development.

In her article, “The Impact of AI on Professional Development,” PDI Founder and President Connie Ryan makes the point that while artificial intelligence has its place in education, it cannot possibly understand the reality of teaching and managing a classroom full of students with all the challenges a teacher faces nearly every minute of every day. Most importantly, AI is not capable of showing the empathy and compassion that teachers deserve and respect in their professional development experience through the course content, as well as the support and guidance of a real instructor.

“At the end of the day, all educators have the same goal. We want to facilitate learning that fosters student growth and future success. Therefore, it is critical that professional development courses engage teachers with content written by real teachers and taught by real instructors so that it can make a real difference in the classroom.”

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Nothing Artificial About PDI

While AI is transforming education, there’s nothing artificial about PDI’s commitment to authentic, human-centered professional development. It is this strong commitment by PDI that has earned us a long-standing relationship with UC San Diego as our credit-granting institution. UC San Diego is a top-ten university in the country and home to over 21 Nobel laureates. Dr. Morgan Appel, Assistant Dean, has written a letter of support for PDI and its courses. Download the support letter.