The VEX Professional Development Plus (PD+) Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a place to learn from and be inspired by fellow educators who are teaching with VEX in a wide range of learning environments around the world. The PLC is also the place to get feedback from VEX team of experts who contribute to the community regularly. Through participating in the PLC, you are able to work collaboratively to improve your teaching skills and student performance with VEX.
Overview of the VEX PD+ Professional Learning Community
A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a community of professionals that engages regularly, coming together as a community to learn from each other. The VEX PD+ PLC is a place for educators to ask questions, share expertise and work collaboratively to improve STEM teaching skills and student performance. Through participating in the VEX PD+ PLC you have the opportunity to be a part of a worldwide community of educators that is dedicated to enhancing STEM Learning for both teachers and students in ways that are engaging, relevant, and equitable.
It just takes a few steps to get started participating in the VEX PD+ PLC. See below for a brief overview of the VEX PD+ PLC, and step-by-step instruction on how to you introduce yourself to the community.
Once you are logged into VEX PD+, select the "Community" icon from the Dashboard.
You will see a list of VEX platform categories that include the following:
- VEX - general topics that could apply across multiple VEX platforms
- VEX 123 - topics that apply to VEX 123
- VEX GO - topics that apply to VEX GO
- VEX IQ - topics that apply to VEX IQ
- VEX VIQC - topics that apply to the VIQC Competition
- VEX V5 - topics that apply to VEX V5
- VEX V5 Workcell - topics that apply to VEX Workcell
- VEX VRC - topics that apply to the VRC Competition
Under the Latest tab, you will see a list of recently posted topics with information to help you find the topics that are most relevant to you. Information shown includes:
- Post Title
- Author Icon
- Category
- Number of responses to the post
- Time since the last response
Introduce yourself in the Community
Take a moment to introduce yourself to the community. Post a reply in the "VEX Robotics Community Introductions" thread and tell us a little about yourself. See below for steps to post your introduction.
Select the "VEX Robotics Community Introductions" post pinned at the top of the Latest Topics section.
Note: Select the name of the post to open the topic.
Read through the other community member introductions, then select 'Reply' on the first message to add your introduction to the thread.
After 'Reply' is selected, the Composition Window will open at the bottom of the page and you can start writing your introduction.
As you start typing, you may see the 'Welcome' window open on the right. Select 'esc' to close this window once you have read the information.
Write your post in the Composition Window on the left. You will see how the post will look in the community on the right.
Tell the community a little about yourself in your introduction, such as:
- Where are you from?
- What are you most excited about in teaching STEM? What is your teaching background?
- How will you be implementing VEX?
- What is something that you hoping to learn in the PLC?
Select 'Reply' to post your introduction.
Once posted, you will see your introduction in the VEX PD+ Professional Learning Community.
Deleting, Saving a Draft, and Editing a Post
Follow the steps below to delete your post, save a draft to finish later, or continue editing.
Select 'Cancel' to discard, save, or edit your introduction.
Once cancel is selected, the window on the left will open. Select one of the three:
- 'Discard' will delete your post.
- 'Save draft for later' will save a draft that you can revise later.
- If you select 'Save draft for later,' the draft will open when you select 'Reply' in the 'VEX Robotics Community Introductions.' topic.
- 'Keep editing' will take you back to the composition window.