Publication Date

10-2026

Abstract

This design case describes our team’s development of Learning, Educating, and Developing Out-of-School Teaching (LEAD OST), an online professional development program addressing the training gap experienced by out-of-school-time (OST) educators. Drawing on sociocultural learning, informal learning, and experiential learning theories, we designed a fully asynchronous, modular program intended to provide practice-integrated professional development suited to the scheduling constraints, geographic dispersion, and resource limitations common in OST settings. In this case, we describe how we integrated these three theoretical frameworks into specific design decisions, module structures, and assessment strategies, and how the constraints we worked within- a limited-hours format, a fixed platform, and no compensation for participants- shaped those decisions in turn. Because we set out for LEAD OST to serve a research purpose alongside its educational one, we also built an evaluation architecture directly into the program, embedding assessment activities that double as data sources for future refinement. We close by describing our plans for piloting the program with OST educators and the questions we hope that pilot will help us answer. We offer this case as a documented instance of one team’s design process, for readers to draw on as they see fit for their own work.

Document Type

Article

Keywords

professional development, informal learning, informal pedagogy, out-of-school time, asynchronous online course, design case

Disciplines

Adult and Continuing Education | Adult and Continuing Education and Teaching | Instructional Media Design | Online and Distance Education | Vocational Education

Source

International Journal of Designs for Learning

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DOI

 https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.14434/ijdl.v17i2.42440