Recipient Organization
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
1680 MADISON AVENUE
WOOSTER,OH 44691
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The Virtual Laboratory School (VLS; www.virtuallabschool.org) is designed to be a dynamic professional development system that is reflective of the latest research that should inform the care and education of children and youth and is responsive to emerging needs in military child care settings. The objective of this project is to continue the work of the VLS in providing innovative and cost-effective virtual professional development (PD) for child development, school age, and youth program staff and family child care providers by offering a system grounded upon the effectiveness of reflective practice, tailored coaching to support staff members' use of optimal practices, and evidence-based strategies to support adult learners. We will accomplish this objective by revising website and backend database code in response to user feedback and changes in industry standards, updating current VLS content and resources in response to new research as well as expert and user feedback, and providing training and technical assistance for military-affiliated training and curriculum specialists, program managers, and other child and youth program leaders. To support the continuous quality improvement of the VLS PD system, we will collect feedback using technical systems, virtual feedback forms and meetings, and in-person activities. In addition, we will continue to visit military child and youth programs to gather and refine high-quality demonstration videos to embed across the coursework and develop and pilot new content in response to needs identified by project stakeholders, including for youth personnel and family child care management.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The VLS has become a state-of-the-art professional development system that is not only the focal point of the Department of Defense's (DoD's) Child Care Training System but has been recognized as a respected, comprehensive resource both internationally by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and domestically by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and several states. Given this, the overall objective of this proposal, as outlined in the original request for application, is to continue the work of the Virtual Lab School in providing innovative and cost-effective virtual professional development for child and youth development program staff.To ensure successful completion of this project, we look forward to continuing our partnership with DoD and the VLS military advisory group. As has been our practice, the following objectives will be accomplished through active communication and careful planning with DoD leadership.1. Provide all maintenance and support necessary to maintain the Virtual Lab School web presence.2. Continue the development of competencies for providers, trainers, and managers within the child, youth, and family childcareenvironments.3. Continue technical assistance for the deployment of competencies on military installations as they are developed.4. Provide training to installation-level personnel.5. Collect ongoing feedback from users to enhance content and incorporate system improvements.6. Conduct filming of high-quality early childhood environments to highlight experiences and best practices. Filming includes theoperation of the classroom/learning environment and related areas, interviews highlighting areas of expertise, and specialprojects happening in the classroom/learning environment.7. Development of a professional development track that provides foundational and specialized training for personnel workingwith youth.8. Refine evidence-based assessment criteria for the deployment of the Family Child Care (FCC) Home Visit Monitoring System (HVMS) and support training and successful implementation of the FCC HVMS system.
Project Methods
The following activities describe the methods we will use to meet the objectives of the project:Quarterly scan of care and education research for updated content.Updating of appropriate lessons to incorporate revised inspection criteria or new guidelines as released from relevant national bodies (e.g., NAEYC, NAFCC, COA, AAP, BGCA, 4-H, etc.).Quarterly quality assurance (QA) scans of links, activities, resources, downloads, etc.Collection of feedback from users via support contact.Quarterly tech quality assurance (QA) and rapid responses to user feedback via support email contact.Bimonthly virtual meetings, and email, phone calls, and ad hoc virtual meetings as needed with the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Virtual Lab School (VLS) military advisory group (MAG), which includes Headquarters-level Child and Youth Program (CYP) leaders from each of the Services.Regular monitoring of industry standards and security software.Literature reviews to inform the creation of the youth professional track.Literature reviews to inform the creation of 4 live leadership webinars over FY26. Our content & training team will create, lead, and record these 4 webinars and ensure they are added to the site so others who could not attend the live offering can access them.Conduct internal and external reviews of courses written by the VLS content team as well as contracted writers with expertise in particular aspects of youth development (e.g., supporting creativity, family and community engagement).DoD and MAG review of at least 2 courses for the new youth professionals track, which will take place online over FY26. These courses will then be updated based on this Headquarters-level feedback. (Please note, the youth track courses cannot be published live on the site until the entire 15 modules are complete to support track certification).Select courses piloted and published. We will work with DoD to identify pilot sites or use pilots in community-based programs to help inform refinement.Coordinate with DoD and the VLS MAG to identify filming locations, focusing on high-quality youth programming in FY26. We will conduct at least 3 filming trips over FY26.Conduct a total of 2, three-day trainings for TCSs, PMs, and/or FCC monitors, coordinators, and administrators over FY26.Collaborate with DoD and other relevant partners on the refinement of training and supports for FCC monitors, coordinators, andadministrators.Develop and review at least 2 targeted professional development (TPD) modules over FY26, aligned to the needs identified byDoD and the VLS MAG as discussed in the meetings and communication channels referenced above.Construct six news posts and 4 quarterly newsletters throughout the year to inform VLS users of recent significant researchfindings regarding early care and education, school-age children, or youth, new content and technical enhancements on theVLS site, and provide additional timely supports relative to issues identified by DoD, the VLS MAG, or our VLS content team.In-person and LLW training attendees and participants in all pilots will be asked to provide feedback to be used in systemimprovements.