Professional Development Software: the 7 Best Options

The world of education is always evolving. As technology entrenches itself in our lives, we find more ways to use it to reach our goals. And one of the most important goals for educators is to improve their teaching. 

A 2021 survey by YouGov, commissioned by Ofsted (the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills in the United Kingdom) showed that:

• Around 70% of teachers and leaders engage in training to improve their teaching
• 74% of leaders consider teacher development to be important for school improvement purposes

The data is clear: most teachers want to improve their craft. And that’s where professional development software comes in. 

Professional development software is a tool that supports educators in enhancing their skills. It does so by offering a collection of features that help teachers learn new content, receive feedback, collaborate with peers, and track their progress and achievements

But with so many options available today, how can you pick the solution that suits your needs the most? We have done the research for you and selected the 7 best options that cover the widest range of use cases. 

Let’s get started!

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iAspire

iAspire is a professional development software that helps teachers improve their practice and retention. It is designed to help teachers feel better heard, supported, and valued in their work. 

iAspire’s main features are:

• Celebrations: Are your teachers going above and beyond? Are they working hard to improve the classroom? Celebrate their achievements and make them feel like their efforts are being noticed.
• Customized Observations and Evaluations: iAspire allows you to create your own observation and evaluation forms that suit your school’s standards and goals.
• Asynchronous Micro-Coaching: Micro-learning is all the rage these days. And for a good reason: it works. With iAspire you can design micro-learning experiences that help teachers develop their skills.

iAspire is a great option for teacher professional development if you are looking for a software that can help you build a stronger school culture, run your teacher observation processes, and provide ongoing check-ins and coaching to your staff. 

But the software comes with drawbacks, with the main one being the lack of features such as online courses, data dashboards, and gamification. It’s also less intuitive than similar programs. 

iAspire is best suited for school leaders who want to create a positive and supportive environment for their teachers, and help them feel more engaged and motivated in their work.

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Slides With Friends

Slides With Friends is a software platform that helps you create and play engaging and fun slides with your group, online or in person. 

Some of the main features of Slides With Friends are:

• Slide Deck Creator: You can build your presentation or game like a slide deck, using a familiar and easy-to-use interface. You can choose from hundreds of popular pre-made games and presentations, or create your own from scratch. You can customize your slides with your own content, images, colors, and fonts.
• Interactive Slides: You can add special interactions to your slides, such as word clouds, live polls and surveys, multiple choice and text-answer questions, photo sharing, ratings, quizzes, and more. These interactions allow you to engage your group, collect feedback, and have fun.
• Screen Sharing and Group Participation: You can launch your presentation the same way you would a PowerPoint, and display your slides on a projector, or share your screen through Zoom or any video call software. Your group can join in easily on their phones or any device, using a simple QR code or URL. No apps or downloads required.

Slides With Friends is a great option for professional development if you want to make your events, meetings, and lessons more interactive, fun, and memorable. 

Slides With Friends is best suited for school leaders who want to foster connection, collaboration, and creativity among their teams and educators, and who want to provide them with personalized and enjoyable professional learning experiences.

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Steplab

Steplab is a professional development software that helps teachers improve their teaching through responsive instructional coaching (RIC). 

Some of the main features of Steplab are:

• Granular Improvement Steps: Do you want to master the most effective teaching techniques? Do you want to know exactly what to do and how to do it? Choose from over 1500 small and specific teaching targets, each with success criteria, model videos, and practice tasks.
• Ongoing Feedback Processes: Do you want your teachers to get regular and constructive feedback? Do you want to see how they are progressing and impacting their students?  Steplab offers data analytics tool to let you see how your teachers are doing.
• Professional Development Content: Steplab offers hundreds of videos of effective teaching, covering various subjects, grades, and topics.

Steplab is a great option for teacher professional development if you want to master the best teaching practices, based on the latest research and evidence. 

Steplab is best suited for teachers who want to master the best teaching practices, based on the latest research and evidence, through a personalized and rigorous coaching process that involves regular observation and feedback cycles.

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Sibme

Sibme is a software platform that helps teachers improve their practice through video-based coaching, feedback, and collaboration. 

Sibme promotes experience sharing, in-house and among the community at large. That way, your team can grow faster and offer better education to your students. 

Some of the main features of Sibme are:

• Video Capture and Upload: You can record and upload videos of your teaching from any device. But the platform is flexible, as it also allows you to import videos from external sources like Google Drive, YouTube, or Dropbox.
• Video Annotations and Sharing: The platform offers slick video annotation tools. For example, you can highlight a moment where you used a great questioning technique, ask for suggestions on how to improve your classroom management, or tag a video with a specific skill or standard.
• Video Library and Resources: You can access a library of videos and resources from other teachers and experts. The search filters make it easy to find the perfect video for your needs. Need a K-5 video about fractions? Or maybe a video for high schoolers on climate change? No problem.  

The platform's main drawback is that it takes some time to get used to. If you're looking for a more plug-and-play solution, or if you already have a good system in place, you might want to choose a different tool.

Sibme is best suited for teachers who want to learn from their own and others’ teaching, and who are willing to share and reflect on their videos.

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TeachBoost

TeachBoost is a software platform that helps teachers grow their skills through observation, evaluation, and coaching. 

Some of the main features of TeachBoost are:

• Observation and Evaluation: TeachBoost is a software platform that helps teachers grow their skills through observation, evaluation, and coaching. Based on your district’s standards and goals, you can set up TeachBoost to follow the data and align your feedback to rubrics, frameworks, and best practices.
• Learning Plans and Goals: Teachboost lets you create custom learning plans. Got a specific area in which you want your educators to improve? Create a plan around it. You can pick what to focus on.
• Professional Development Resources: The platform comes with a set of ready-made development resources. These resources include webinars, articles, and podcasts. All of professional quality. 

TeachBoost is a platform that offers a secure path to growth to your educators. It’s a solid choice for teachers who like to get feedback and act on it.

Its main downside is that it may not be compatible with some devices or browsers. Some users reported that they had issues with uploading videos, viewing feedback, or accessing resources on certain devices or browsers. 

Still, TeachBoost is a great pick for educators looking for a flexible platform that helps them figure out what’s going well, and what needs adjustments.

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Edthena

Edthena is a software platform that helps teachers improve their practice through video-based coaching, feedback, and collaboration. 

Edthena’s main features are: 

• AI Coach: Edthena’s AI Coach is a breakthrough technology that guides teachers through a self-observation, goal setting, and action planning process. The AI Coach analyzes the teacher’s video and provides personalized feedback and suggestions based on research-based best practices. 
• Video Coaching: Edthena’s video coaching platform allows teachers to receive timely and specific feedback from coaches, mentors, and peers. Teachers can also give and request feedback from others, and engage in professional dialogue and reflection. 
• Video Library and Resources: Edthena’s video library and resources offer teachers a rich source of professional learning content. Teachers can search and filter videos by subject, grade, topic, skill, or standard, and watch examples of effective teaching in various contexts and settings.

Edthena is the perfect choice for school leaders who want to provide their teachers with a personalized and effective learning process. Edthena helps you improve your teachers’ skills by letting you see, share, and discuss their own and others’ teaching. Edthena is easy to use, flexible, and compatible with any device or browser. Edthena is the best way to leverage the power of AI and video coaching to enhance your teachers’ professional development.

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Kickup

KickUp is a software platform that helps you coordinate and improve your professional learning efforts. KickUp helps you collect and analyze data related to your teachers’ progress and needs over time, and use it to make better decisions for your professional development programs.

Some of the main features of KickUp are: 

• Data Collection and Analysis: KickUp helps you gather feedback from your teachers, coaches, and administrators, and turn it into actionable insights. You can use surveys, observations, assessments, and other sources of data to measure the impact and effectiveness of your professional learning initiatives. 
• Professional Learning Management: KickUp helps you plan, deliver, and monitor your professional learning activities. You can create and manage events, courses, and workshops, and track attendance, credit, and completion. You can also align your professional learning to your district’s standards and goals, and customize your rubrics, frameworks, and best practices. 
• Professional Learning Content: KickUp helps you access and share high-quality professional learning content. You can browse and filter hundreds of resources from other districts and experts, covering various subjects, grades, and topics. You can also upload and share your own resources, and create playlists and collections.

KickUp is a great option if you want to use data to drive your decisions, and ensure every dollar you invest in professional development impacts classroom instruction. 

KickUp is best suited for school leaders who want to monitor and drive strategic alignment across teams and educators, and who want to provide them with personalized and effective professional learning opportunities.

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Wrapping up

As educators, we all want to provide to our students the best possible teaching. And professional development software helps us reach that goal. But not all professional development programs are the same. They are all great, but in different ways.

Each one has something different to offer, depending on what kind of teacher and school leader you are. You might want to check them out and see which one fits your needs best. Or you might want to mix and match them to create your own professional development cocktail. 

Make sure to evaluate the outcomes and impact of your professional development software choices. You can use data, feedback, and observation to measure how your teaching skills and student learning have improved. You can also share your experiences and best practices with other educators, and learn from their successes and challenges. Professional development software is not a one-time solution, but a continuous process of learning and growth. By making sure to evaluate your results, you can adjust your strategies, celebrate your achievements, and keep improving your educational outcomes. 

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