The College of Southern Idaho is creating a program for teaching teachers how to teach online.

The Twin Falls-based college will use a $25,000 workforce development grant to develop online learning modules with resources and videos of online teaching to “demonstrate best practices and check for understanding,” CSI’s director of non-traditional certification, Christina Linder, told EdNews on Wednesday.

The program will be free for Idaho teachers and administrators and will likely roll out in August or September. Modules will be available in both self-paced and group formats and will be accessible from anywhere in the state.

The statewide shift to remote learning drives demand for resources equipped to help teachers new to the remote learning world, the college said. “For many teachers, this was their first attempt at online teaching, and they had little to no training to prepare for it.”

The Idaho Digital Learning Alliance and education technology firm TeachForward have partnered with CSI to create the program, which is being developed around National Standards for Quality Online Learning.

Another big name in Idaho education circles will participate. Charlotte Danielson, creator and namesake of Idaho’s most widely used teacher evaluations system, will help develop the program’s learning content.

While remote learning is the focus, the modules target another lingering challenge for many districts: teacher recruitment and retention. The modules may “help districts retain teachers who may be struggling to transition to online teaching,” the college said.

Disclosure: Linder is also a member of Idaho Education News’ governing board.