Coastal Plains Regional Educational Service Agency
Coastal Plains Regional Educational Service Agency (CPRESA) in southern Georgia provides cooperative services to twelve school districts representing eighty-three schools in its area. One of CPRESA’s primary values is delivering professional opportunities to more than five thousand teachers, administrators, and staff. That requires a workshop registration system that can automate as much of the workload as possible.
If at first you don’t succeed…
When Regina Purvis became the Professional Learning Director at CPRESA, the organization had used a registration system that became obsolete. Further, a relationship with another system didn’t go well. “Compared to those two, Learning Steam has been wonderful,” Regina says. In addition to regular learning opportunities, CPRESA also uses Learning Stream for Endorsement signups. That’s where certified teachers can get additional training and certification, such as a reading endorsement. Teachers can do what amounts to graduate work through the RESA instead of a university.
Canvas integration
The Endorsement training is another time-saver for CPRESA, because Learning Stream integrates with Canvas, the RESA’s learning management system. “It’s fabulous,” says Leanne NeSmith, the instructional technology specialist for the RESA. When a teacher signs up for an endorsement class, they enroll directly into the class in Canvas. Yet, all the teacher’s history—live or asynchronous participation history—resides in Learning Stream. “They talk to each other seamlessly,” Leanne says. That’s a change from the old days. “Other products didn’t do what they were supposed to do every day and Learning Stream does.”
More time for what counts
Because the purpose of the CPRESA Professional Learning staff is to deliver professional learning, time spent setting up and managing registration for more than one hundred offerings a year is time taken away for other responsibilities. For Coastal Plains RESA, the weeks of time saved through Learning Stream is time devoted to improving the professional qualifications of southern Georgia teachers.
Other products didn't do what they were supposed to do every day and Learning Stream does.