FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Chicago, Illinois, August 2, 2022– After continued success with the Hāpara Champion Certification Program, Hāpara has taken the next step to partner with Ashland University and offer educators graduate credit for completing Hāpara’s Champion Program courses.
Hāpara has worked hard over the last six years to develop the Hāpara Champion certification program into a premiere professional learning offering.
The Hāpara Champion certification program consists of three self-paced online courses led by expert facilitators to help teachers learn how to use Hāpara effectively. The courses are designed to empower educators and recognize their autonomy, provide flexible learning environments, foster community and agency, and are pedagogically sound to develop strategies to train adult learners and develop an adult training philosophy.
“Time and time again, we’ve had teachers tell us Hāpara Champion Educator is the best professional development experience they’ve ever had. One teacher even commented that it changed their instruction in the classroom. We’re proud to be held in such high regard by educators, and hope this partnership will lead to even more professional learning opportunities for them,” Robin Poncia, Vice President of Marketing and Customer Success at Hāpara.
“These classes inspired me to be a better teacher! Throughout the series I have been inspired to collaborate with other teachers to design and record a historical figures video series complete with lesson plans for elementary and middle school students. I am designing Workspaces to organize my units of study and use Hapara to teach students how to appropriately research for assignments,” says Sheri Cash, teacher and Hāpara Champion.
Enrollees in the program will take all three self-paced Hāpara Champion levels (Educator, Scholar and Trainer) delivered by Hāpara facilitators using Workspace. They will also take 10 hours of additional classroom reflection activities in order to earn course credit. Educator and Executive Director of Digital Innovation at Schlechty Center, Katherine Crawford, will facilitate these extra hours on behalf of Ashland University.
“We are thrilled for this new partnership. Our educators can now earn graduate credit while deepening their instructional use of the Hāpara Suite and modeling Hāpara’s commitment to transformative instructional practices,” Heather Rentz, Community Development Manager at Hāpara.
“My biggest takeaway from the Trainer course has been the overwhelmingly amazing ideas that I have gained from the other members of this cadre and previous cadres (HCE/HCS). Getting a chance to look through all of the amazing workspaces created has been so helpful in getting a better sense of how I like to create my own for my students and what the best ways to organize them are. I’m still learning as I go, but I feel like having this opportunity to get a glimpse into the virtual classroom of so many educators have been wonderful!” Brittany Dunbar, Hāpara Champion Educator and Scholar.
Those educators who have already graduated from Hāpara Champion Trainer will not need to redo the program. Instead, they will only complete the extra reflection portion of the Ashland course.
“This partnership with Ashland University is a big step toward our continued mission to empower educators,” says Poncia.
For more information about this new partnership, and to get certified, visit: https://hapara.com/get-certified/ or contact Heather Rentz, Community Development Manager, at professionallearning@hapara.com.
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